Shock in the paper tonight

[cwsox]

I worked at Catholic Family Services with families with children in foster care. One client, Amy, was a person who you just knew would never pull it together. Her son S was very special to me, he was very afraid of his mother's boyfriend and everytime I transported S to visits he would tell me of how mom's bf beat the s*** out of her and him and the baby. We worked hard to give S a sense of a normal life. I took him to the Air Zoo and other places like an A&W root beer stand he had never been, to experience some life as a regular kid does. And what was tough knowing that despite S's best wishes his mother Amy was never going to get off the drugs and get it together, that she would never be a mother to him. I liked Amy though, she was a nice person with a huge weakness she could not control.

 

The Agency closed the foster care department and the clients transferred to other positions and I was out of a job. That was in 95. Last time I saw S. I saw Amy once after that, she was at a crack house across the street from where I lived and I saw everyone come and go. I moved from Kalamazoo in 1997 (and wish to hell I had stayed but that is another story).

 

I still get the Kalamazoo paper. The news had been of an unidentified body found in the Asylum Lake area (an area that people go for sex and drugs) so decomposed they didn't know if it were male or female. They knew it was a homicde.

 

Right after Friends I picked up the Kazoo paper and they identified the body. Amy. No news in the paper about where S is, who would now be about 16.

 

Called some of the other case workers with whom I worked. One of our clients now works as a waitress (glad she is actually working). Got some other news of others. And my heart is going out towards S, that little boy whose hand I used to hold because he was so scared of the mother's boyfriend and had been beaten him so much, every tiime we walked from the car to a building and back again he was afraid that man was behind every tree and would hurt him.

 

Reminds me of how many of my problems are trivial. And I cry for S,where ever he is, having lost the mother he never had.

[DBAHO]

That story was so sad, I really feel for little S, he didn't deserve those problems growin up. I hope he's alrite and livin a normal life too.

[Soxy]

That's really sad and horrible CW. It's amazing the horrible things people can do. I hope S is okay and working to break the cycle of violence. Man, every time I hear stories like this, ugh breaks my heart all over again...

[Mathew]

I had a less than perfect situation, (better than most) and survived and I hope for myn brothers daily.( no comparaison) I hope the best for that kid, and for all in the same situation.

[Texsox]

If we made having kids as difficult as getting a driver's license or a gun, much of this heart ache would never start.

 

I was aproached last night to buy some crap to support a "say no to drugs" program. I asked the kid, who was maybe 15, what the organization actually did to help keep kids off drugs. He said something about printing up flyers, etc. I asked him if they ever had meetings? He said yes. I asked him where, he asked me what town he was in

 

As I suspected, he's part of a group that exploits kids by offering them travel and jobs, sends them in 15 passenger vans far from home and has them selling stuff all day and into the night. I asked him when the last time he spoke to his parents, do they know he is safe? He started to say something about running away and

 

at that point his crew chief appeared and grabbed the kid and quickly took him away.

 

I will be keeping that boy and S in my prayers. I believe societies should be judged not by how the wealthy and priveledged live, but how the least among us live. That is the gauge on how just, moral, and compassionate we are.