“I am getting acorns together and I am going to be ready in the morning at the bus stop. They count how many times they can hit me. Sometimes they throw handfuls at a time. I am looking for the biggest ones and I am going to have my ammunition ready. They got me this morning, but I will be ready tomorrow. It is fun and it helps them pass the time waiting on the bus.  I babysit kids around here and we have a good time. They behave for me. I don’t spank, but I do talk to them and tell them what is right and wrong. I teach them yes ma’am, no ma’am and thank you and we don’t fuss. I get on the floor and play with them. Sometimes you have to get on their level.  I had three sons and a daughter. One had cancer and died when he was 18 months old. My daughter is overseas and I am taking care of her three kids. Kids come over and bring their friends. One day I had 14 boys and one girl in my one bedroom apartment. I cooked and ordered pizza to have enough to feed them. I enjoy the children. I was married to an abusive husband. That is why I am in Alabama. I lived with him 23 years. I came here in 1998 and I am safe now and I pray. I was living in Baton Rouge and they sent me to a halfway house in Mobile to get me out. I had never been away from home but I was ready for a better life. They put me on the bus and told me Mobile but I didn’t know where Mobile was. I started getting nervous when it crossed into Mississippi but thought God is with me. I talk to God. I got off the bus and sat down. A man walked in and picked me up and took me to the big yellow house on Providence Street. My life changed there when I left my situation. I have 19 years of sobriety and I am doing good. I love everybody and was taught to speak to people. My mama had five daughters and four sons and my daddy was a sharecropper in Zachary, Louisiana. He was high yellow and his mom was Indian. My grandmother on my mom’s side was a slave in Texas. With all of that mixed up in you, you learn how to get along with everyone. The Bible tells us to get along.  I am always singing. If you don’t hear me singing, I am thanking God for what I have. I don’t worry about what I don’t have. I thank him for waking me up. I think him for watching me while I slept. No one broke in on me last night. I am safe and happy.”