I remember the days when I lived next to an elderly couple whose daughter, Elizabeth, resided with them, along with her own three little girls. Elizabeth had always been the subject of murmurs in our village it was said she was fatherless. The reason, whispered behind closed doors, was that she had three daughters, each by a different father. Stories circled, and one told that Elizabeth, called Eliza by her family, married young only eighteen. The lad she wed was head over heels for Eliza, and her parents, wishing for her happiness, saw no reason to object.
Eliza and her husband lived together for around five years, yet no child arrived. Folks soon started to speculate, as villagers do. The blame, of course, fell on Eliza: some said she had lived so wantonly before eighteen that she could no longer have children.
Elizas relationship with her mother-in-law, a formidable woman from the countryside, was always strained. The mother-in-law would quietly tell her son that a wifes chief duty was to bear heirs, and hed be better off without Eliza. Eventually, the echoes of his mothers words took hold and he left her. When the time for divorce came, Eliza didnt bother to change her surname back she said it was too much of a bother with all the paperwork and trouble.
Not long after, Eliza met another man, and by chance she became pregnant. Turned out it wasnt Eliza who couldnt have children it had been her first husband all along. No matter, though. The child was born, but the father wanted nothing to do with them and disappeared almost at once. Having no alternative, she gave the baby her first husbands name.
Elizas own mother didnt scold her for the circumstances; she was, in fact, quite pleased to have a grandchild at last. Some time passed, and Eliza shared with her parents once more that she was expecting. This time, at least, she had remarried, and they took comfort in that fact. Yet her new husband hadnt fancied children so soon. Alas, fortune did not smile: the baby girl was born with health challenges. Overwhelmed, her husband abandoned them as well, disappearing without even seeking a divorce.
Eventually, Eliza crossed paths with another man and resolved to have a third child, though her parents voiced their concerns feeding all those mouths would be no easy feat. Eliza was undeterred and carried on, bearing her third daughter. In the end, this father too vanished, and the girl was given a different surname.
Thankfully, Eliza managed to buy herself a modest flat, thanks in no small part to her parents help. After some heated quarrels at home, she realised she needed to secure more funds to care for her daughters. She approached the matter of child support, but had little success none of the men would own up to fatherhood, and some even resorted to idle threats.
So there was Eliza. Three children, but to what end? Once again, she found herself facing hardship, just as before.
