A Mother's Love (The Love of a Non-Biological Mother)

It all began in the early fifties in a little dusty southern town in South Carolina. Annie and Luby Williams were blessed with two little girls from New York City. I was one of the little girls. We lived in St. Stephens. It was a small farming community, having scattered houses surrounded by large acres of cotton and tobacco fields. We lived far from the city limits, yet we were in walking distance from the town. Our dusty old road was connected to the main Highway 45.

Our drinking water came from an old hand-pumped well on the back porch. Our laundry water came from an old well in the backyard. We had no refrigerator, no television, no phone, no electric iron, and no radio, but we did have electricity.

I was five years old and my sister, Paulette, was four. Mama sat us down in the living room and showed us our birth certificates. They said our mother's name was Pauline and our father's name was Leroy Gordon. They both lived in New York. She explained that she and Daddy were not our real parents. She began to tell us the story of how we became her children.