Poor circumstances and racism can be overcome! The girl in this little story is my neice. I’ll do my best to keep this as brief as possible:
18 year old girl from rural Iowa gets job as nanny in Oakland, CA. Has romance with young black man while in CA and gets pregnant.
Goes back to Iowa to face extreme disapproval from her father (my bil). His family makes life hard for quite a while.
Boyfriend’s family in CA is a mess. Brother in prison for gang related… But, that young man goes to Iowa and takes up the responsibilities of father and husband.
They have two more beautiful little girls. He works, but faces racism at work and in FIL’s family. Hard to get ahead. Very hard.
Nine years later: All family members have come to respect and love this young man who pulled himself up with grit and tenacity. He still has a hard time making ends meet, but is in electician apprentice program, works full time in the trades and two night a week stocking shelves at the grocery store to keep things together.
FIL’s father died two months ago. “Granny” and the rest of the family members are now so fond of this young man and have developed so much respect for his ability to hang in there and keep up his responsibilities that they concocted a special Christmas gift: A big box, another smaller box inside that one and so on down to the tenth box which held the keys to grandads ’96 F150 with only a few miles on it. (Grandad had been sick for quite awhile)
I know if you could meet this young fellow you’d all be impressed. What’s less obvious is the transformation that took place in several family members who went from the negative generalities they believed to a whole new view based on their personal experiences with a real person.
All the Christmas presents I gave and received pale in comparison.
Love thy neighbor! and Merry Christmas…
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
Replies
Good one.
Who Dares Wins.
It is nice to know that some people still "get" Christmas....that's not a mistake, it's rustic
And nice that they "got" even more than that.David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
it seems that whenever I find myself clinging onto prejudices they are always shot to pieces.
we all have them. its impossible not to.
in my experience though I've never met anyone who is the stereotype of their race or class.
most (like 99.999999999%) of people are good and decent. its unfortunate that we normally only tend to notice the worst in each other.
I have great respect for your nieces' husband, he could have just walked away. she obviously chose well.
when people do things that are either good or bad I don't think that people do it intentionally the majority of the time they do it because they are just people.
EDIT: pardon me for going off on one
Edited 12/26/2003 5:29:25 AM ET by kostello
My heart is warmed...
Wonderful story-- it looks like there's still hope for this world. Thanks!
Thanks for posting that message.
True spirit of Christmas and all that!
Edited 12/26/2003 12:00:42 PM ET by Bob Walker
I have a cousin in that situation with a family that is not so adaptable. Thanks, your story made me smile.
EliphIno!
yes Virginia ... there is a Santa Claus!
very nice.
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Being brought up as a Jew in NYC and living in a predominantly black neighborhood I never experienced racism until I got older...against Jews. Swastikas drawn all over our sidewalk in front of our house when we first moved in.
Was a real good lesson in stupidity. Then when I had several of my black friends from the old neighborhood come sleep over things got even worse.
Funny enough.that hood is now mixed and my racist next door neighbor still lives there.ha ha
Be well
andy
My life is my practice!
http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM