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Akua’s phone beeps. It is a text message from Jake announcing his arrival at their usual meeting place. Few days or weeks ago this would have been a perfect call to pleasure with all its benefits but not today. Not when she has news to break, news of pregnancy with a married man. She replies to the text almost reluctantly, telling him she was on her way. Is Jake going to accept the pregnancy and leave his wife for her as promised? Or is he going to persuade her to terminate the pregnancy? These two questions put her on pins and needles as she journeys in a taxi to the hotel where Jake is waiting. She had learned of her pregnancy the day before and has never slept since then. With pursed lips, forehead pressed to the window, she stares absent-mindedly at buildings, trees and vehicles. Akua’s mind is miles away from the back of the moving red and yellow Kia Rio taxi where she sits. She’d been thinking about how she is going to break the news to her boss and boyfriend, Jake. Jaco...

Forget about the sly smile on my face, look deep into my eyes and you will see pain, even feel it. What happened to me has taken away every ounce of purity from my very being. That emotional pain has left nothing but scars that will forever remain. Hurt people they say, hurt people. That’s exactly what I have been doing. I killed my love, but I did not kill anybody, confused? Come along, let me tell you my story. It was a Tuesday, not just any Tuesday for me because it was my second day after my 27 th birthday. I had fantasized about making gestures with my left hand on that day just to show off my ring but that sadly didn’t happen. What could be compared to the sight of my boyfriend on one knee posing the question on my twenty-seventh birthday?  Tell me can anything be bigger than that for a bachelorette? You can call me desperate but I have no shame; I had waited for it long enough and I thought that twenty – seven would be a perfect age to get married. My boyfriend of...

You guessed right. The room is a rented one. Oops! Sorry, the money for the rent is yet to be raised. But at least the mattress for the room is ready. It is what Elly’s fiancé uses in his auntie’s house. That’s all they have. Elly called me on phone at about 4am one Tuesday, Trish, our other friend was on the line too It was very unusual and my impatient self could not wait but ask: “El (Elly’s pet name), what’s going on, I hope all is well? Why a conference call at this time?” “Elly, can’t this wait until the break of dawn? I slept very late and I’ve got to go to work in the morning. Can I go back to sleep?” Trish said in a rather low tone. “Guys, guys just hear me out, okay? There is something we need to discuss and it’s about Nana and …” Elly hardly finished when Trish interrupted “…and you, of course,” ending Elly’s statement. “I hope he has not impregnated you?” I teased. “What! Akosua don’t be silly. Now will you guys just shut up so I can continue?” Then the lin...

“She isn’t the best woman in the world, this is what I have had at the back of my mind for all these years. You know what that means? It means there are more women out there with better qualities than she has but she is the one for me and I made her who I wanted her to be.” This was Francis Mensah-Quaintson’s answer to my first question about how he managed to stay with his wife for this long. He is 97 and his wife, Anna Mensah-Quaintson, 92 have been married for 71 years. They have six children (four men and two women) and about thirteen grandchildren and two adorable great-grandchildren. They live in a house with a number of their grandchildren. Their eldest granddaughter said her grandparents are never still. “Grandpa is always walking around the house either clearing weeds in the garden with his hands or helping the guys in the house fix faulty items,” Cassandra said. She said her grandma (Anna) used to sweep the church every morning until she became too weak to move o...