The Life
By Gail
Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt things
wouldn’t get any better? I have been feeling that way for the past two years.
Things have changed dramatically for my family. At first it was my mom’s
illness, then my father being arrested, and much more. While going through all
this I also had to worry about my son, Joseph. If it wasn’t for my family being
there to help me through it all I don’t know where I’d be today.
Things first started taking a turn
for the worse in my life when my mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer,
which at first was lymphoma cancer. These are very serious diseases and it
frightened us all to see what our mother had to go through. She had been diagnosed before but the
doctors had said that it went away when she was pregnant with my sister,
Carolyn. However, about 6 months after she gave birth, my mom began to have
sharp pains in her leg. She then had it checked by the doctor he said the
cancer came back this time the lymphoma cancer spread and it turned into
cervical cancer. Immediately, my mother started chemo therapy and radiation.
Starting this the doctor said that the tumor was shrinking and that the
treatments were helping and that she would be a survivor. Little did we know in
a short period of time my mom was going to become terminally ill.
Life really got bad for my family
and me when my father and brothers were found guilty in federal court and
arrested on March 8th, 2010. It seemed like as soon as my dad got
arrested my family came up to stay with us to practically take advantage of us.
They came to help take care of my mom but they only made things worse for her
by stealing her meds and anything they could get their hands on at the time.
With my dad in jail, everyone knew they could take advantage of my mom. After
my mom passed away everyone including the newspaper said she was 100% mother
always taking up for her kids, and she was. That didn’t stop anyone from
stealing from my family.
Early morning April 23, 2010, I went
into labor. At the time my mom was in ICU after just having surgery done to get
a colostomy bag. With my mom in the hospital and nobody to drive me, I had no
choice but to drive myself to the Emergency Room. It was very ironic since just
the night before I was at the hospital with my mom visiting her. I wasn’t able
to stay long because you have to be a certain age to be in the ICU. Before I
left I hugged her and said “don’t leave me” as I was crying and she told me “I
won’t”. I had everything ready for the hospital so I got in our Saturn and
left. I was scared I would see the cops but, I felt I had no other choice but
to take myself. I finally arrived at the hospital and walked in and told the
woman at the information desk I was in labor. She then asked me how far along I
was and how old I was. When I told her I was 9 months and 13 years old she
asked where my parents were; I responded by saying my mom is admitted in the
hospital and that my aunt dropped me off. The night before she stayed all night
at the hospital with my mom so she wanted to go home and get some sleep. They
got me in a room and started my IV; just a few hours later I started having
sharp pains, which were contractions. I called my aunt to have her come to the
hospital; it took her around 8 hours to get there. When she finally got there
they had started me on pitocin and broke my water. I then got an epidural and
with the baby’s dad, my grandma, and my aunt in the room I became fully dilated.
Within an hour of pushing, the baby was out. He weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and
he was 21 inches long. After being in the hospital for 3 days, a friend of the
family came and picked us up. I stayed the night with the baby’s dad that night
and went home the next night.
After just a few days of being home,
the cops and social worker came to our house. By this time my mom was already
home, but she was still real sick and they had her on all kinds of medicine.
She was in bed constantly sleeping all day because her meds. My mom barely knew
what was going on when they came and took us into custody. We hugged my mom and
told her we loved her. I won’t forget the look on my 2 year old sisters face I
didn’t want to accept it but I already knew we weren’t going to be coming back
home or seeing my mom. The social worker
Carol Brown told us we needed to hurry. I often wonder what these social
workers would do if they were in my shoes. It seems like everyone is out to
hurt us and not there to help which is what they are suppose to do. While I was
in foster care, my mother passed away. I won’t forget that day either it was
May 8th, 2010, mother’s day. Everything continued to fall apart my
sisters and I being separated because they couldn’t find a foster home big
enough for all of us. We were in many different foster homes for 6 months and
by that time they finally moved us to New York with my cousin. However, my
cousin and I didn’t get along so I ended up coming back just a few weeks after.
Now I am still in foster care separated from my son and sisters.
So, if you think about it, the past
2 years of my life have been rough. Many things have gone wrong that have hurt
my family, but we have all stayed strong and stuck together through it all. I’m
hoping for things in life to get better soon. I would love for everything in
life to somewhat be normal again, although I know it will never be completely
normal without my mom here with us.
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