I read your column and see how you have helped a lot of people and I am asking you for your fatherly advice. When I was a child, a lady took me from my mother. She took me to school and did not show them my birth certificate. The teacher said that I should be going to high school. When I told the lady, she said that that high school was not a good high school and I would have to stay home and do housework and take care of her grandchildren.

At the same time, she had a big daughter, but most of the time, I had to do everything, including washing her husband's clothes, cleaning the house, etc. They had land, and so I had to help them pick coffee and look after the pigs and chickens. She was a church woman. Whenever she went to church, I had to stay home.

One of her son's brought a baby home when she was nine months old and I had to take care of the baby. She sent me to do sewing. I never attended classes for one week. My mother did not come to see me. My brothers and sisters, who were living with my mother, went to school.

When I was 21, a man came and asked the lady to allow me to marry him. My real mother did not know because this lady told the man that she was my mother. I got married to the man and had my first and second child at the house.

While I was still living there, she made a will and gave me half an acre of land, but her grandchildren took it away and sold it. I eventually left my husband, but I went back to live at her house and took care of her until she died.

Do you know if there is anything i could do about the will and how I could be compensated for what I did for the lady?

I was out on the road after that and a man gave me a piece of land and I built a two-bedroom house on the land and am living there with my five children. After I got married, my mother and the lady fell out. Many of my relatives don't know me because I didn't grow up with them.

I.W.

Dear I.W.,

I regret hearing about your struggles. You were abused by the woman with whom you were living. She made you into a slave, but I am sure that your mother sent you to live with her because she thought that she was not in a position to take care of you, and this lady, who was in a better position, would have supported you and treated you well. On the other hand, your mother was careless. She left you in the hands of this lady and did not visit you. She abandoned you, so to speak. I suggest that you contact the Legal Aid clinic and explain to them your situation and try to find out if they can do anything to help you.

Pastor