The year my family moved out from dad's house

 My first born son came on 3rd March 1993. My family and I were still staying at my dad's house then We cooked separately but always shared our special dishes with dad. Dad was happy with the arrangement.

Both my wife and I were teaching in the morning and we had to leave our son under my eldest sister in-law's care. We asked permission from our Headmaster to go and see our son if we had the interval to do so. We couldn't do these all the time. My baby boy was still breast feeding at that time and sometimes my wife needed to go back. Our school was across the river. We had to cross the Oya River and rode a motorcycle to school from my uncle's house. It wasn't easy. My wife had to learn how to ride a long boat. We used our 15hp Yamaha long boat to cross the river to my uncle's house which was just across the river opposite my dad's house. We helped dad to pay the bills and bought our own ration but usually we always gave dad those ration that he rarely had. Every forthnight we had to go to Sibu to see my parents-in-law. Then we made arrangement to cut down on travelling as our son was still a baby. We only visited my parents in-law once a month. So, at times
they had to visit us. After praying and considering the pros and cons, I discussed our plan of moving to the quarters with my dad. It was not easy, we knew we would miss dad and would not be able to take care of him as we usually did. We thought it was the best solution as we did not want to put our son risk and ourselves, too. See, it was not easy to cross the river everyday. I am sorry to say, though we paid our sister in-law to care for our baby boy, at times I caught her neglecting our son in his cradle while she slept sounding. We never scolded her. Then she always nagged that we did not pay the bills even though we did. She always seemed to cause dad to misunderstand us. This was the truth that propelled us to leave dad's house. Of course, we loved dad and we met him every Sunday at the church. We also visited each other frequently. We met in town and at our school. Dad understood why we had to leave and he knew we cared and still loved him very much. we still share our food and bought him presents. We were happy. My dad brought all my nephew and nieces to the church where we served God. I was happy for them...now I am not as they all go their own ways. I feel like my dad was cheated...they only followed dad when he was alive. Now he had gone to the Lord, they just follow their own ways and life style. May God forgive them. Dad used to come to our quarters on weekends and had lunch or dinner with us.