The wicked stepmother
Unlike most children, Amavi was not fortunate to grow up with her mother. Therefore, when her father, Mr Otaa, decided to marry Auntie Kyeiwaa, she was elated because for her, it offered another opportunity to experience how to live with a mother. However, Amavi’s excitement was short-lived.
Auntie Kyeiwaa, who came into the marriage with her daughter from her previous marriage, turned out to be a thorn in her flesh.
Advertisement
For some strange reason, Auntie Kyeiwaa hated Amavi to the core. Amavi was the one who did all the chores in the house - washing, cleaning, scrubbing and running all the errands. She was also the one who prepared the meals yet she was not given some of the food. Often, Auntie Kyeiwaa will make her prepare gari ‘soakings’ to eat instead. As for insults, scoldings and beatings, they became a daily ritual for her.
Mr Otaa never got to know about the ordeal Amavi was going through. It always occurred at the blindside of him. Moreover, he was often out of town for business trips.
Surprisingly, Amavi took the maltreatment in her strive but was always consoled with the fact that Auntie Kyeiwaa wanted to nurture her to become a responsible adult in future so she meted out the treatment out of love and that did not prevent her from loving her.
She performed every chore to the best of her ability with the hope that the situation will not continue forever and that one day things will work out well between them. Because of this, she always tried to go out of her way in order to please Auntie Kyeiwaa but she always failed to do so.
Auntie Kyeiwaa was so wicked to Amavi to the extent that even after she was all set to go to school, she will give her chores to make her late. As frustrating as this may be, Amavi would not complain in such situations but quickly execute the task and set off for school.
The most hurting part of all this was that sometimes her step-sister, Akosua, who was of the same age as her, will not do any chore.
Auntie Kyeiwaa’s intention was that since Amavi was not her biological daughter, she was not obliged to treat her well. Amavi was sometimes overwhelmed with work but when she asked Akosua to assist, she would just walk away.
It got to a time when Amavi could not take the abuse anymore and thought about fighting back but she quickly changed her mind and expressed the hope that things will be better someday.
Indeed, that day finally came when her dad, Mr Otaa, had to host a few of their relatives and some foreign investors who were in the country to do business with him. Throughout their three-week stay in their home, the visitors saw how hardworking Amavi was and how she preformed all the chores perfectly. They were surprised that Amavi did all these without complaining.
One of the foreign investors held the notion that since Amavi was hardworking she will transfer the same attitude if she was employed in the formal sector someday. To the surprise of all, he offered to sponsor the processing of her documents to enable him to take her along when they returned to their country.
When Auntie Kyeiwaa and Akosua heard about the news, they did all they could so that Akosua would rather go, but the investor had made up his mind already - Amavi or no other person.
True to their words they took Amavi along with them and when she was employed after completing school, she was hardworking and executed all tasks assigned her diligently. She rose through the ranks quickly and became very successful too.
As for Akosua, she became a lazy employee. Wherever she got the opportunity to work, she was not committed and executed task assigned her haphazardly. As a result, she was sacked from the companies whenever she gained employment.
In the end, she became an unemployed graduate and her mother had to fend for her. This generated conflicts between them and anytime it happened, Auntie Kyeiwaa will put all the blame on herself.
She regretted that she brought her daughter up that way.
She thought she was helping her by not allowing her to do anything but it did not do her any good. Amavi whom she thought she was punishing had rather benefitted from the training she gave her.
Friends, the lesson here is that Auntie Kyeiwaa maltreated Amavi with the hope of making life better for her own daughter but it was the reverse which happened.
If she had treated both girls with equal severity, her daughter might have become as successful as Amavi was. As children, we should learn to work hard wherever we find ourselves because we don’t know when it will be of help to us one day.
Aba Aboawah Addo,
Calvary Christian Academy,
Agona Swedru.
