Supporting my mother when she was evicted

It's as if these thoughts lingered in my head, encouraging me to continue on with the crises, in the middle of the night...

In the same year, my father evicted my mother out of the house over a quarrel. It was traumatic because unlike the previous quarrels, this time, my father evicted my mother out of the house. Whenever a quarrel broke out between my parents, my heart would start to pound very quickly, and I would get nervous and scared. Both my sister and I would each go to our own rooms. Inside my room, I would sit in a foetal position, use my arms to grab my legs tightly, willing and wishing that it would all stop. The quarrel got bad and my father told my mother to pack her bags and leave. I remembered my father telling my sister and myself that the quarrel was between him and my mother and that we needn't leave. I felt unjust that my mother was evicted, and in support of our mother, both my sister and I chose to leave with her. We packed our schoolbags, books, went down to the ground floor, and called our uncle using the public phone. Our uncle was very understanding, and we went took a cab and went to his place to live for a few months. We thought we were going to leave the house forever. I was feeling righteous, and scared at the same time. At that time, I didn't know what was going to happen when I supported my mother.

I took it one day at a time then. It was very reassuring to have my uncle let us have a place to say. It didn't occur to me whether I would be staying there forever or not. It didn't also occur to me then, but over the next few months, we would be together until my father and my mother reconciled, and we moved back to the house again.

During times of marital difficulties, it helped to have supporting relatives. In this case, my uncle gave unconditional help, and put us up for the few months it took my parents to reconcile. It was probably at this time that I developed a sense of righteousness.