Stepmother says I am a ‘jacket’

Dear Pastor,

I am 17 years old and I was living with my father and stepmother. She does not love me.

She was always talking bad things about me. She told lies about me. She constantly tells my father that I am not his child. She says I am a 'jacket' and that everybody can see that I am a jacket, except him.

One day she asked me to do something. I did not move fast enough and she slapped me. When my father came home, I told him that I wanted him to find another place for me to live. He asked me what was wrong and I told him. He asked her about it and she said she slapped me because I was rude to her. I did not say anything to my stepmother. My father told her that if that happened again, he would slap her back. She said to him, "So you accept what this black girl said over what I told you?" My father replied, "All you have over her is your colour, but she is my daughter and she is more beautiful than you." That hurt my stepmother.

My father made arrangement for me to go and live at my godmother's house. But my stepmother and my father have now broken up. My father told me I can come back home. My wicked stepmother is telling everybody that I am having sex with my father. Nothing like that is going on. My father has never put any question to me. This woman hates me without a cause. My father said that he does not want her back in his home nor in his life.

My godmother told me that I did not have to leave her, but I have returned home to my father.

V.J.

Dear V.J.,

I am sorry to know that your stepmother doesn't like you. She was jealous of the good relationship you had with your father. It was wrong for her to slap you, and now she is accusing you of going to bed with your father. Try your best to do well in school. Study hard and make your father proud of you. I wish you well.

Pastor