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Extract As My Mother Taught Me |
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I was driving home to Maryland that evening in January 1979 –
just one year away from the opening of the first Women’s Centre.
I was inconsolable – dejected, despairing and broken hearted.
Why had I left my comfortable pad at the Queens’ Extension School? I had
been happy there – in my element - teaching.
Now, teachers looked at me in scorn – what did I think I was doing
encouraging these teen mothers in their sinful ways!
Thomas Wright alias Morris Cargill had just written a Gleaner
article entitled “Little Wretches” proposing "…flogging with the Tamarind Switch
and forced abortions” for the teen
mothers.
He asked, “How could we be giving them love and a second chance in life?”
– little wretches that they were!
My mind ran on the scene in my office just that morning.
Standing before me brandishing a gun, was Alice’s “baby father.”
Alice lived in Wareika Hills and when I found her, she was living in a
“lean-to” – pregnant, no job, no family, no money.
Alice came to the Women’s Centre – my new programme for Adolescent
Mothers - and even lived at home with me for a while.
I could not leave her to sleep on the dirt floor of that shack.
After a while we found an Aunt who took her in.
She wanted her baby to be adopted because she could not look after it.
She needed to begin to get a grip on her own life.
A lovely couple who could not have children – she a primary school
teacher with a warm, loving nature, he a jovial, kind man –adopted the little
boy. And did they love him! He was
showered with love and affection. The man with the gun said, “I hear you give away mi baby. Well, hear me now, I want ‘im back wid ‘im mother.” .... .... Read on .... Buy Your Copy Today! |
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