Stepmother is convinced I am a jacket

Dear Pastor,

I am 16 years old and I used to live with my father and my stepmother who don't get along.

They are always cursing each other. They are married but my father cheated on her with my mother. After my mother gave birth to me, she did not want to keep me, so she left me with my grandmother. When my grandmother became ill, my father came for me when I was five years old.

He told me that my stepmother agreed that he should bring me home. But she turned against me because she said my father was paying more attention to me and she believed that I am a jacket. My father told her that the two children she gave to him look like jackets, but I am his. I spent five years with my stepmother and my father. Then my mother showed up and I went to live with her. My mother has not settled down. Right now she is running a bar for a man who she says loves her. This man loves my mother, but he told me that he does not know what to do with her because she steals his money and he does not know what she is doing with it.

My father gives me money to attend school and I really love him. I get along with my mother's boss; she said I should not look at him as her spouse because as soon as I am 18, she is going to leave again. My mother is foreign minded. She told me that she hates Jamaica and when she goes back to America, she will find a man to come to Jamaica and marry me and take me away. My father says I should not listen to her. She is a crazy woman, and one of these days he says when I am able to run a house, he will rent a place and we can live together as a family because he does not intend to remain with his wife.

My life is complicated. I know that you may not even understand this letter very well, but I thank you for reading it nevertheless.

E.F.

Dear E.F.,

I understand your letter. You come from a dysfunctional home. Your mother did not want you as a child, so your father took you to his house.

His wife agreed for you to be there and perhaps he showed you more love than his other children because he knew that you needed more attention. But your being at that house created more problems for him, because his wife was always cursing him and calling you a jacket. Whether you are a jacket or not, you have been bouncing here and there, because your mother has returned to Jamaica and is working. But the man with whom she works accused her of stealing his money. Let them fight that battle between themselves; don't get involved. Just do your best at school and plan a career.

You will soon be an adult and you will make decisions for yourself. But remember, get yourself an education because you can never lose on that. Please work as hard as you can. Show respect to all those who are around you and make sure you serve the Lord Jesus.

Bye-bye.

Pastor