Dear GhanaWeb,

I am a 43-year-old man and the only son of my parents. My father passed away years ago, so it has always been just my mother and me.

Growing up, my extended family didn’t support us, so my mother raised me alone.

Now, my mother is 74 years old. God has blessed me enough to be able to take care of her. I am married with two children, and recently, I bought a house for her to live in.

However, she often complained of loneliness, so about two months ago, I decided to bring her to live with my family.

Since she moved in, things have taken a strange turn. She hasn’t troubled me directly, but her behaviour has become very unsettling.

Every evening, she seems to be having a conversation with someone in her room. We can hear her clearly, talking and laughing, but we never hear anyone respond.

Her room is downstairs, directly beneath the bedroom my wife and I share. Whenever we hear the strange conversations and go down to check, we always find her fast asleep.

On several occasions, we’ve tried to wake her, but it’s been extremely difficult, almost like she’s in a trance. This is unusual because she’s never been hard to wake up before.

She has also become very protective of her room. She gets extremely upset if anyone enters it while she’s not there.

She says we’ll "wake her people up", but when we ask who these "people" are, she refuses to answer. If we insist, she cries or yells until we back off.

The house help has even stopped attending to her because she won’t allow anyone to do anything for her.

Everyone in the house is now afraid of her. Sometimes she accuses us of trying to feed "them" with the food we bring her.

But the scariest part are the night voices and noises. Strangely, when we sleep in another room, we don’t hear anything at all.

My wife is convinced that my mother is a witch and wants her to leave. As much as I love my mother, I am scared too. But I can’t abandon her.

She doesn't want to talk to me about what’s going on, and when I press her, she either cries or pretends not to understand.

Even my children are now afraid of her. They don’t want to go near her, and I can see how this is affecting everyone in the house. I’m deeply troubled by the situation.

I don’t know what to think anymore. What could be happening to my mother? How do I resolve this without turning my back on her?

More importantly, how do I get my family to stop fearing her and love her again?

Please, I need help.

FG/EB


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