How could she do such a thing?
Have you ever walked by an older car and looked at its rusted holes and beat up fenders? Maybe you have seen a junkyard with its acres and acres of abandoned cars.
Sometimes I stop and look at one of these disgraceful looking cars and try to imagine what it must have looked like when it was new. I try to image what the new owner must have felt like the day that he drove it home from the dealership. It's hard to imagine that at one time this beat up piece of junk was once polished and pampered by its proud owner.
Everyone has watched TV and seen the sad faces and emaciated bodies of children who are hungry, sick, homeless, or dying. They look so old and worn out, but they too were once, and for some not too long ago, newborns with proud owners, most of them anyway.
There was someone who had high expectations for them and now they are like that neglected and discarded automobile.
I want to tell the story of four beautiful children and how they got to a place where they were homeless and destitute. The characters in this story are true. I have tried to put together the events leading up to their abandonment as best I could based on what the children told of their past lives. They were abandoned by their mother in the market. It is hard to imagine what would cause a mother to abandon her children, but it isn't hard to imagine the anguish and heartache that led up to and following the event.
As I ride the crowded bus to the market, my mind goes back to when my son Dennis was born. It was eight years ago, it seems like only yesterday. Then, a year later, Elmer came along. His father was more caring then Dennis' father. I used to see him regularly. He would come around quite often. It seemed like he wanted to have a family and family life. After the two girls were born I saw less and less of him. With four kids to feed, clothe, and take care of it is getting harder and harder to come up with the money.
We are a family, but it has gotten to the place where I can't keep them anymore, especially with the new friend that I have now, and the threats that he makes. Why does he have to be so mean to them? I remember the last time that I tried to take them to the market and leave them. When I got there, I just couldn't go through with it. Do I have the strength to go through with it this time? When we get into the crowd, I will quickly slip away and leave them. They will be all right. Someone will find them and take care of them.
They are all over there looking at the toys on that table, I'll just sneak behind this booth and it will be all over.
As I sit on the bus riding back to the house my mind is racing with all kinds of thoughts. Where are they now? Little Jenny is only two, she can hardly walk. Her big brother Dennis will take care of her. I wonder if I should go back and try to find them. No, I have been through this thing a thousand times. It is the best thing for them. I can't bear to seen him abusing my children anymore and with there being no food in the house, well…
As I get home, the house seems so empty. Little Jenny isn't here to hang unto my legs. Becky isn't here to help me fix the meals. The laughter of the boys is absent. Oh God, I wonder if they are all right.
As I lie in bed trying to go to sleep, the tears run down my cheeks. It is the first time in how many years that I have been alone? Where are they tonight? It is so dark out there. Did they have something to eat tonight? So many questions and I have no answers.
As I ride to the market on the bus, my mind is flooded with all kinds of questions. Will they still be there? Oh, how I want to see them again. Will they still be there? Has someone found them and abused them? Have the police found them? Have they been getting something to eat? It has been nine terrible days and nine tormenting nights since I have seen my babies. I ask people in the market if they have seen four children. They tell me that they have seen many children. What am I going to do? If I find them and take them home, what will he do to them? If I can't find them, how can I live with myself?
It would seem that after all these weeks without them the pain would ease, but it doesn't. I ask myself, what kind of a mother would abandon her children after raising them all of these years? I miss Dennis and his sense of humor. He is so intelligent. I was hoping that he would be able to go to school and be somebody, and Elmer, so sensitive. Those two beautiful daughters, those big dark beautiful eyes. What am I going to do without them? How can I go on?
The epilog to this story is that after living on the street for eight days and nights, living off banana peelings and garbage, they were found by the police. The judge assigned them to the orphanage where Ruth and I were working. If you were to visit the orphanage and see these children, your life would never be the same because part of your heart would remain with them.
Becky, Dennis, Little Jeny
My class, Dennis in green shirt, Elmer behind and to his right.
Have you ever walked by an older car and looked at its rusted holes and beat up fenders? Maybe you have seen a junkyard with its acres and acres of abandoned cars.
Sometimes I stop and look at one of these disgraceful looking cars and try to imagine what it must have looked like when it was new. I try to image what the new owner must have felt like the day that he drove it home from the dealership. It's hard to imagine that at one time this beat up piece of junk was once polished and pampered by its proud owner.
Everyone has watched TV and seen the sad faces and emaciated bodies of children who are hungry, sick, homeless, or dying. They look so old and worn out, but they too were once, and for some not too long ago, newborns with proud owners, most of them anyway.
There was someone who had high expectations for them and now they are like that neglected and discarded automobile.
I want to tell the story of four beautiful children and how they got to a place where they were homeless and destitute. The characters in this story are true. I have tried to put together the events leading up to their abandonment as best I could based on what the children told of their past lives. They were abandoned by their mother in the market. It is hard to imagine what would cause a mother to abandon her children, but it isn't hard to imagine the anguish and heartache that led up to and following the event.
As I ride the crowded bus to the market, my mind goes back to when my son Dennis was born. It was eight years ago, it seems like only yesterday. Then, a year later, Elmer came along. His father was more caring then Dennis' father. I used to see him regularly. He would come around quite often. It seemed like he wanted to have a family and family life. After the two girls were born I saw less and less of him. With four kids to feed, clothe, and take care of it is getting harder and harder to come up with the money.
We are a family, but it has gotten to the place where I can't keep them anymore, especially with the new friend that I have now, and the threats that he makes. Why does he have to be so mean to them? I remember the last time that I tried to take them to the market and leave them. When I got there, I just couldn't go through with it. Do I have the strength to go through with it this time? When we get into the crowd, I will quickly slip away and leave them. They will be all right. Someone will find them and take care of them.
They are all over there looking at the toys on that table, I'll just sneak behind this booth and it will be all over.
As I sit on the bus riding back to the house my mind is racing with all kinds of thoughts. Where are they now? Little Jenny is only two, she can hardly walk. Her big brother Dennis will take care of her. I wonder if I should go back and try to find them. No, I have been through this thing a thousand times. It is the best thing for them. I can't bear to seen him abusing my children anymore and with there being no food in the house, well…
As I get home, the house seems so empty. Little Jenny isn't here to hang unto my legs. Becky isn't here to help me fix the meals. The laughter of the boys is absent. Oh God, I wonder if they are all right.
As I lie in bed trying to go to sleep, the tears run down my cheeks. It is the first time in how many years that I have been alone? Where are they tonight? It is so dark out there. Did they have something to eat tonight? So many questions and I have no answers.
As I ride to the market on the bus, my mind is flooded with all kinds of questions. Will they still be there? Oh, how I want to see them again. Will they still be there? Has someone found them and abused them? Have the police found them? Have they been getting something to eat? It has been nine terrible days and nine tormenting nights since I have seen my babies. I ask people in the market if they have seen four children. They tell me that they have seen many children. What am I going to do? If I find them and take them home, what will he do to them? If I can't find them, how can I live with myself?
It would seem that after all these weeks without them the pain would ease, but it doesn't. I ask myself, what kind of a mother would abandon her children after raising them all of these years? I miss Dennis and his sense of humor. He is so intelligent. I was hoping that he would be able to go to school and be somebody, and Elmer, so sensitive. Those two beautiful daughters, those big dark beautiful eyes. What am I going to do without them? How can I go on?
The epilog to this story is that after living on the street for eight days and nights, living off banana peelings and garbage, they were found by the police. The judge assigned them to the orphanage where Ruth and I were working. If you were to visit the orphanage and see these children, your life would never be the same because part of your heart would remain with them.
Becky, Dennis, Little Jeny
My class, Dennis in green shirt, Elmer behind and to his right.
posted by Jim Burton at 8:09 AM
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