I fell in love with my friend’s 16-year-old daughter

Dear Pastor,

I am a 35 year-old man and I read your column as often as I can get THE STAR. I have always enjoyed reading your column. I could not read well when I was first introduced to your column, but my friends used to read it, and they told me what you say.

I have learnt to read, and I help others.

I got involved with a girl when she was 16 years old. Her mother and I were good friends. The mother used to ask me money regularly, which I always gave her. I was working in a grocery shop, and, one day, I told her mother that I love her daughter, and she told me that she is available. She said it would be up to her daughter to agree if she wanted to be with me, but she would have no objection.

So, apart from giving the mother money, I bought this girl a lovely dress and shoes to match, for Valentine's Day.

I am a black guy and the girl is of light complexion. When people realised that the girl and I were together, they asked her mother how she could allow her nice daughter to be with such a black man. This girl told people that black is beautiful.

When she was 19 years old, I got her pregnant. She went to HEART/NSTA Trust and she did very well. I have my own business now, and we have a house. Her grandparents left a plot of land for her mother and we built a two-bedroom house on it.

We are about ready to have another child. Our first child is a girl, so we are hoping to have a boy next time. I have gone on the farmwork programme twice.

My girlfriend is very jealous. If she calls my phone and does not get through to me, she becomes very suspicious. Whenever she is successful in getting through to me, she questions me a lot.

I will not forget where we are coming from. Her mother loves me a lot because I have always tried to help her.

This girl does not know her father. She sees me as her husband and her father. When I am on farmwork, I see so many men wasting their money on prostitutes. The girls up here line up to get money from Jamaican men, and many of them are white.

I can say to you that I have never gone with any of them. I am afraid to catch diseases.

This girl and I are not yet married, but that is in the making. Thank you for your column. It has opened my eyes to many things.

S.E

Dear S.E.,

You are not the first person to tell me that my column in THE STAR has helped you to learn to read. I often wonder how come, and that is one reason why I try to keep my column at a certain level that will help everybody understand.

I make an effort not to use unusual words, and if I have to use certain words, I try to explain so that even the uneducated man can understand.

You are a very fortunate man. You assisted the mother of the young woman you have taken as your partner.

Her mother appreciates what you have done for her, so she had no objection in encouraging you to go with her daughter.

I am relieved that this young lady had attained the age of consent, which under Jamaican law is 16 years old, before you sought to get involve with her. It would have been a criminal offence if you had got involved with her before she reached the age of 16.

I must say to you, my dear sir, that this girl has worked well with you. It is time for you to marry her.

You mentioned, that you have gone on farmwork abroad, and that you have not wasted your money on prostitutes. Get married before to this woman before you have another child.

I wish you well.

Pastor