“If I could do anything to make my mother happy, I would do it a million fold because I witnessed her suffering and pain first hand. If my mother is a divorcee now, it’s because she chose to support me so I am eternally grateful to her.”
These are the words that made tears trickle down the cheeks of gospel musician Empress Gifty during an interview on Adom TV’s Okukuseku with Emelia Brobbey.
The artiste was detailing her financial struggles during her early stages and how her mother’s sacrifices played an instrumental role in her life.
Caring for six children; two females and four males, life was far from rosy for the Oppong family, especially Mama Agnes.
Empress Gifty and her mother had to engage in menial jobs including hawking cassava, eggs and seasonal fruits, yet the sales were too meager to give them a life of luxury.
“Everyone in Tema Community 1 knew my mother as the popular egg seller. She later upgraded to selling cassava and other food items. She’s sold yooyi, alansa, and every fruit that was in season. Anytime I returned from school, I had to hawk some too,” she recounted.
Unlike every child who loves the yuletides, Christmas season was a pain to Empress Gifty as she had no clothes to wear to the special church service, and once again, her mother would have to trade her valuables to acquire a dress for her children.
“I remember one fateful Christmas when I had no dress, my mother soaked cassava for me to hawk to get money to buy fabric. She did everything to make sure I went for the special church service.
“Even when I graduated from school, I was required to wear a white outfit, but I did not have. My mother had to borrow my grandmother’s dress and alterate it to my size. I saw my mum dong all these things for me and she went the extreme all the time,” she said amid tears.
Empress Gifty added that her mother had to quit church because they were objects of mockery, however, she never for once blamed them for her struggles or maltreat them.
It is for these reasons Empress Gifty said she would not trade her mother for anything in this world, and she will continue to flaunt her at every given opportunity.