TBCH Housemates

A woman I shall call Dawn shared the house with me during my stay at the TBCH Family Program. She had three children under the age of five. A cop in her home town in Louisiana had set her up to come to Texas and apply to the program. The cop had recommended she leave the state, having got way too many calls to her home because her husband was always beating her. She was so scared! She jumped up and ran to the window whenever she saw a car go by, and insisted on parking her car behind the house. Her children were much too young to understand why Mommy had suddenly chucked them all in the car and headed for the border. All they knew was that they missed Daddy and Grandma, and all the husband's other relatives, and that their headlong flight was all their mother's fault. The middle one, who had been potty trained, soon wasn't. Even the oldest one started to wet the bed. They would constantly injure themselves and each other. They screamed, howled, broke things, stole things, spit in each other's food, poured oatmeal into the VCR, and generally acted as if they were put on this earth with the express purpose of driving their mother stark, raving bonkers. They almost succeeded.

I lost track of them eventually, so don't know how the family turned out. But Dawn completed nurse's training and became certified as an LVN, which made her enough money to support them. I think she remarried; this time one of the White Hat Brigade.

I hope her life worked out well. She was so determined to make it, against such odds.

If I'd had those kids, I'm sure I would have given up.