Incest

There are some words that can cause cold shivers to run down your spine like someone yelling "fire" in the movie theater, or, hearing some one scream for "help," but the one that turns legs to jelly, bringing cold vengeance and scorching anger to the surface can only be whispered in the black community. Incest! The secret is out and is long overdue to do something about it.

There is a common idea in the black community that it is in bad form to air our dirty laundry in public and it is precisely this idea that has protected generation after generation of incestuous fathers stepfathers, brothers and uncles. Statistics from the Justice Department show that anywhere from 7% to 30% of all American women have experienced inappropriate sexual attention from a male family member. In the African American community the numbers of similar, but the acts tend to be more brutal and callous.

In 1985, Stephen Spielberg's film of Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and yet it didn't win a single one after the NAACP protested the depiction of black men in the film, with the key point being the incestuous relationship that focused on Cele. The NAACP protest cost some deserving actors and actresses a chance for fame and glory, but that is only the material side of the loss. The biggest loss comes from the dirty dregs the NAACP tried to sweep under the carpet and that is incest does happen in the African American community. Not only does incest happen; it happens far too often.

Certainly, black men have been picked on, beat up and dissected but when an act is wrong being black as ten past midnight does not make it right and will never make it right. It their myopic approach to protecting the African American community the NAACP shot itself in the foot and insulted thousands of black women who have suffered the insult on unwanted male attention. Black men rape women, girls, boys, and the NAACP wanted to make sure the lid didn't come off. Where were they when every night a regular parade of black men in handcuffs sauntered across the television screens in America? Where were they? Fortunately, the leadership has changed now, but incest has not. It is still in the community, hiding under a rock, locked in the frightened throat of little girls to afraid to tell.

Unfortunately, these things usually don't happen in vacuum. Many times mothers are often aware of what is happening but will not go against the lover or husband. Well, if it ever was a secret it is no longer. Closets are for putting clothes in and not for hiding dirty laundry. If we must air it in public-its time to spray some air freshener.

Amun, this is a very powerful topic. Too many times this goes unnoticed or unaddressed, but the bottom line is that there are some very sick individuals out there and we need to wake up. There used to be a time where you could let your children go over a relative's house to spend the night, but now you can't even trust your family. Too many times young girls and boys are taken advantage of by an uncle, brother, grandfather, cousin and father. Not only that, just as you said, some of the women in the family know that this is going on and refuse to do anything about it. Oftentime its the child that feels like the one who has done something wrong, they feel that they deserve this kind of punishment, therefore they don't speak out. After all how can you speak out against your father or brother? Suprisingly, in today's times we find now that women are also accused of this. Women are now being accused of sleeping with young boys and girls. we have to recognize the situation. We must know that this is a growing problem in the african american community. We used to think it only happen to white folks, but immorality and indeceny knows no color. The there's the other side of the coin, two relatives who commit incest willingly. you hear more and more stories of brothers and sisters, cousins, involved in sexual relationships. I know of two cousins who married and had children. The result was children who were born with disabilities or deformities. We must educate our people especially our children and let them know that they don't have to blame themselves, they can speak out, they don't have to be victims. We must recognize changes in the children behavorial patterns that may suggest that there is something wrong. If we fail to do this, then we fail to raise a generation.

You are right on the money! I guess we both have a strong feeling about this subject. I get POed just thinking about it. I can't imagine the type of person who would betray a trust like this. I personally know several people who have had this happen to them and they are still trying to deal with it 30 years later! I going to drop off here for a moment---this really get my motor running--Ra

Ra and Bishop,

i deeply feel you botha dn i agree wholeheartedly. i shall respond further later. (at work)

dnommo

I think it's amazing how folks try to sweep things under the rug like that. I mean, when most people hear of incest they think of a lil blond girl being fondled by daddy in the midnight hours...but that just isn't so. The older I've gotten more memories begin to surface and I am beginning to see the secrets our family used to whisper about when I was younger. Older cousins attacking the younger ones, even a few dating each other in the open like it's all ok...I actually have an uncle that had five daughters and he molested every one, and my PARENTS used to send me over there all the time. Now why they would put a child in a stituation like that, knowing what's going on over there just boggles the hell out of me...and even more, the reaction i got when I mentioned some things that I had dreams about, things that I've come to learn are memories and not just dreams, I was shunned. That's what happens alot in these situations...the VICTEM gets shunned. Not crazy aunt Harriet or freaky old uncle Joe or Billy (who just ain't right in the head)no...it's never their fault...it's the victem. Women turn their heads to that **** everyday in a desperate attempt to hold onto their husbands or lovers...or to stay in good standing with the "family". It's all a mess...the repercussions never go away for that...the patterns are never really broken for the one that has to suffer through it, be quiet and be a good girl or be ridiculed and called loose (cuz she so nasty that she even freaks her cousins out) Come on now...when has this become acceptable? It ain't funny, not some joke you tell at family reunions, not some rumor you just dismiss because they are just a child and tend to tell stories! Man **** that! I am sorry but this issue really has me amped. I counseled some teens while I was in college that had been messed with...and the connection that is shared...the destructive patterns, the fear, the warped perception of intmacy and relationships that harbors inside of these tortured souls...it's horrible to see. To feel. To not feel normal. You don't just penetrate skin when you molest someone...you puncture a hole in their soul...in their lives...and nothing, nothing can ever make it right. It's just like commiting murder. A person can never recover from it.

sorry i rambled on and on...
i'll shut up go outside and take a breather!
good topic Ra

Somewhere in the warped minds of some people there is a reason for all of this, but what ever the hell it might be, I have not a **** idea. I just know how it makes me feel and i can't even begin to imagine how it makes a victim feel. Some of you have shared with me off line and I must say that truth is much stranger than fiction. "A punctured soul" is how it was put and I can't think of a btter way to say it. Some poor child will be punctured for life because of some one not capable of taking responsibilty. And, YES! It happens right here in the black community and no amount of sweeping will ever get it under the carpet and its about time that the men who do these things pay the price for the scarring behavior.

This is an issue that breaks me up inside because of the children I've worked with in the classroom, who were housed in lock-down placement facilities ~ as if they had committed crimes. The other side of the coin, the children who are separated from families because of these acts, is a sad consequence of incestuous, emotional, physical abuse. During my employment at one of Southern California's largest "children centers", I would walk the hallways when class wasn't in session, and find myself in the nursery. There would be scores of new infants, toddlers, sisters and brothers, either abused/neglected/abandoned and remanded into court custody while parent(s)/guardians/custodial adults were being charged/sentenced/rehabilitated.

I remember countless horror stories that still bring tears to my eyes. There was a six year old boy, whose father (an ordained minister) repeatedly assaulted him sexually. It is a disease of the worst kind, I believe. And, perpetrators have no idea how they affect/infect the lives of the innocent, forever. Many times, children begin to 'act out' sexually because of these abuses. They BECOME perpetrators against their brothers, sisters, smaller children, etc. The dysfunctional behavior is far-reaching in too many cases. All of my actual students in my equivalent 6th grade class had attorneys, social workers, childrens' advocates; 80% of them required special educational services due to learning disabilities due to their home environments...and of course, there were drug babies who would have certain challenges for life. 90% of the children had counselors/psychiatrists, and many of these chilren were on medications. The 10 - 20% who were so-called 'normal', would be the first (depending upon age ~ older children are always much harder to 'place') to go into group home environments, or to stable family member homes...or adopted outright.

But the separation from family takes its toll on all children in some way. Because everyone is different, we cannot predict who will thrive, survive, or stay alive.
And I did see death come to those who didn't make it a week after 'release'...especially if they 'aged out' at their 19th birthday.

I chose to foster a child from this experience; but we couldn't be 'together' until one of us left the facility. Once she was placed in a group home setting, I was able to aggressively 'fost-dopt' her. She became my oldest child ~ I was already a mother of 2 with one on the way. Her story is much like all the others; but she was the oldest of her siblings, and a survivor. It was because of her reporting the incidents of abuse, calling 911, that Childrens Services came in and rescued her and her siblings. She tells me there are memories that still haunt her ~ feelings that nag at her in the middle of sleepless nights. But her natural born will to live and succeed, and her belief that she was destined for something greater, sustained her. She is thriving now, married, with an intact family unit of her own. Her plans have always been to become a childrens' advocate/attorney, working on behalf of children and issues she's intimately familiar with.

This scourge of incest is not new in our society, nor in our 'family' as Blacks. And I agree that the demon must be exorcised, exposed, executed. Bringing people (male AND female, now, it's not always and only the men perpetrating) out, dealing with their deep-seated 'issues' through intensive-aggressive rehab/counseling; making them accountable for their PRESENT manifestations of whatever they went through 'back then', therefore not allowing them to blame whomever turned them out...is one way. AFTER prosecution and STIFF sentencing.

I'm for 'outting' the mental darkness that lurks behind closed doors, responsible for the 12-year old prostitutes, mommies, daddies, drug addicts, thieves, arsonists, gang bangers, murderers I've worked with in lock-down institutions.


A

Alyce has brought some reality to this discussion from the side we wish didn't see. She brings the reality of what happens to those who suffer incest. She tells us the stories of those who choose to go on (there are many who choose not to do so). It hurts to hear such words, but it is true. Toolong have too many people gotten away with this hideous crime. Too long have we turned our heads while the innocent pay the price. Too long we have stood idly by and listened to the charlatans who call themselves protectors, too long we have listened to ourselves say "I'm glad it wasn't me!" Too long is longer than I care to sit idly by. Too long is just to **** long! I've got to take this to another level.

Ra

There once was a young girl who had an uncle. Uncle John would often babysit her. As she grew older Uncle John no longer saw her as a baby, but as a conquest. He first started out by fondling her, and then he moved to having sex with her. She was emotionally a wreck. She knew what happened was wrong, but felt it was her fault. She became introverted and withdrawn. She closed herself off from those around her. everyone knew something was up. One day while Uncle John was babysitting, the Watcher decided to double back to the house, to the Watcher's dismay he saw Uncle John holding the young girl down about to penetrate her as usual. Watcher busted in and put a beatdown on Uncle John, yet the damage is done. The young girl is still undergoing therapy but with the help of the almighty she'll be alright. Meanwhile Uncle John don't come around anymore...After he regained the ability to walk, he did a stint of 10 yrs for his deed...In those 10 yrs behind bars Uncle John became the little girl.

Whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reapeth.


*True Story....The little girl was my Goddaughter, her uncle was her mother's brother and used to be my close friend....She's now 19 and doing fine.

These molesters and abusers could make one of us end up in the place they should be--jail! My first thought is to severely harm anyone who would do such a thing and if I was to be in proximity, I don't know if my rational mind would prevail over such a heinous act. Reality tells me that the worst punishment for such an offender would to be locked behind bars with no chance for freedom and where that peson may become a victim themself, but rage is serious business when it occurs in the moment. I would be devasted to spend one day behind bars for any harm I might cause to such a villian, but it would be just punishment. Nevertheless, it enrages me so much that it seems almost impossible to resist the temptation to castrate such a person and the spot and let them live with that for the rest of their lives.

I know some of these people and as others have all ready said, at family reunions you can tell who they are because mothers keep a constant eye on their children when they are around uncle "so and so". Nowadays, you even have to watch Aunt "so and so" because it works both ways although men are usually the main culprits. It is a sad situation and what makes it even more so is that it is "off limits" to talk about in the community. We are talking about it now, but if this forum was to go public nationally today, within 24 hours the "Negro Thought Police" would be on our butts calling us traitors, sell outs and worse because we had the nerve to air dirty laundry. What makes it even more sad is that it's really not a secret!

Many people have spoken on this. And i saw this early on and yes i am truly late, but i couldn't bring myself to read it until now. I had printed it out to read later if I got up the nerve but running across it through my work papers i decided to read it and decided to go back online and see what you guys had to say. Interesting...

You guys almost had me in tears. Sometimes I ask myself. When someone has experience such an experience do you feel pity for the person, sympathize, or you just understand in way of trying to help them cope with it? But the truth is no one can truly help them cope with something like that...i feel a person must have the strength and courage to move on knowing that it will all be over soon.

I am one of those people you talk about and well not too many people know that. Not too many i have told, but reading this have touched me in a way i thought I would share. Just share..never mentioned again. (For that's how I live my life.)

My mom moved in with my stepfather when i was 2 years old. When i was five..that was the first time he touched me. The phone rung at about 8 or 9 at night. one of his friends. I ran up the hall to answer it...i called out. DAD phone..because that's what my mother told me to call him... ...give me sec...

He came up the hall..it was near bedtime so everyone was sleep or getting ready for bed. I had on my Rainbow bright now gown...he sat me on his lap and he touched me. That was the start of a new found friendship. I knew it was wrong..i learned that in school. That's what the teachers tought in school i thought but i know that could not be happening to me...not my Daddy.

So then it went on..the touching, the fondling...I would wake up in the middle of the night in pain...agony. I would get up and run to where they were sleeping crying..mommie my vagina hurts...she says how why..and i say..i don't know...it just do. Even though i know why...(still untold) She send me back to bed..says she'll check it in the morning. He would get drunk from hanging with boys and come and sleep in my bed...mummie would find him in my bed...hold me. He would tell her that he like my bed...its comfortable. Can you believe that ****!!! its comfortable. And she believed him...go figure.. I couldn't take it anymore..so i told her. She said okay i'm going to confront him...All I could think was my mummie loves and she's going to make the pain go away. They got in an argument one day and she threw it up in his face...a couple of days later she came to ask me if i was sure i knew what i was talking about..asked me if i was lying...She doubted me.(That was the worst thing she could have done) I never told her again other than in heated, hateful arguments. I never told my mother i loved her until my 18th birthday..when I was long gone and was able to cope with it on my own.

It never stopped until I was almost seventeen. She never knew a thing. I didn't love..i didn't trust..men were just an object at my disposal. My mom made me get on BCP as soon as i got my period...my Daddy told her to put me on them...like i was going to have sex with young boys or something..i was a tom boy..i rarely wore a dress. It was more for his protection and i knew that because i didn't want to get knocked up by my stepfather. I got my first STD by him...i was in pain one day and went to get checked. The doctor said i had it...i didn't have a clue how other remember he touched me the other day and i didn't feel right since. I blamed in on public restrooms. :) Funny huh?

I would beg and plead to my mother..can i move. My cousin when i was in the 11th grade wanted me to move to Kentucky with her, my mom wouldn't let me go because i was her only girl and she wanted me to stay with her. I dreaded sleeping at night. I tried to go to bed early before everyone else did so by the time he would come i would be sleep and wouldn't remember what happened. Sometime I would even sleep with my mother. He had insomnia(i think thats what is called)...rarely sleeped. Roaming the house while everyone was fast asleep. My little brother didn't believe me when I tried to tell him. My older brother despised him because he had some kind of an idea. I don't remember my childhood...the happy days..it was all blurr. He abuse me physically, mentally, emotionally, socially etc. He told me that i wouldn't graduate from high school...i would be pregnant before I turned seventeen...That was bet..He now owes me $100 dollars. He told me i wouldn't never amount to anything. I am 21 with my BS in CIS and I am software engineer. I live on my own i have my own place and my own car. He was wrong...i lived to prove him wrong..that was my drive for survival. Now he says he is so proud of me. **** that!!! He came with my mom to visit me a few weekends ago...she doesnt' see him any more but he feels like I'm still his daughter and he wanted to see how I was doing. And actually admitted to the fact that he didn't believe i would succeed. I wanted to kick him out my house.

God gave me strength to make it through all those days..I use to pray that he would take my life...let me die rather than endure such pain. He never did...i'm still not sure if i'm grateful for that..but through it all I found him and he stuck by all the way even now.

And yes it still haunts me...i don't know about the future but it has been haunting me...i think it always will. my First boyfriend my senior year in high school. Yea I was sexually active needless to say...the good thing was it slowed down my stepfather I even got a job to keep me away from the house. He was mad about that. Anyways...i had a flash back...i ran from him..crawled up in a corner and started shaking...scared the **** out of the poor guy. We didnt' talk for a whole week. God...can you imagine how i felt.

A couple of months ago..i drunk Vodka for the first time. Streams of memories just came haunting back to me...hitting me one after another like i was actually there all over again. I cried aloud and alone in the safeness of my own home for two hours and i could not stop crying. Just another one of the things. I don't like to be around older men...If he is more than 15 to 20 years older than me...I don't associate myself with them. I don't feel comfortable. My life is someone in havoc..but through it all I find my peace. My poetry has helped me cope through a lot of the things i have been through.

You know...i can't see it through yall eyes. And i probably never will as like you will never see it through mine. There was no one there to stop it and let me live. You can never understand even the friends i have now although maybe out of 20 I've only told maybe 3 to 5. They can't, won't and don't understand. Why i act, think and do the things i do. The call me shaneak...the unique. LOL if they only knew. But i'm thankful i made it through. I have noticed how it affects the way i react to certain things or just avoiding this artical when i first saw it. I dont' live in denial...everything is reality to me...but i do avoid the a lot of things. I just know that if the lord ever allows me to have a beautiful child I would not take them through what i have been through and i will kill any man and i mean any man who dares to do so.

Well now you guys truly have a piece of me. Like I said...its been said...never to be said again.

I give you all much love..now that I've learned how to. Thanks for supporting us through our trial and tribulations...Watcher, Alyce believe..those people are forever grateful. All those who have helped and been...those people are forever grateful. You saved them from a world no one should ever go alone no one should ever endure. i want to thank you for them... Thank you.

Originally posted by shaneak
And yes it still haunts me...i don't know about the feature but it has been haunting me...i think it always will. my First boyfriend my senior year in high school. Yea I was sexually active needless to say...the good thing was it slowed down my stepfather I even got a job to keep me away from the house. He was mad about that. Anyways...i had a flash back...i ran from him..crawled up in a corner and started shaking...scared the **** out of the poor guy. We didnt' talk for a whole week. God...can you imagine how i felt.

Thank you for sharing such a heart rending story. Their are usually many perpetrators in these cases incl;uding those who do or say nothing and unfortunately as you say, the scars last a lifetime. This hurts to read, but I congratulate on having the strength to face it. ****!

Amun-Ra

i agree whole heartedly with such a powerful and secretive topic in our community. there are so many people who do not understand incest. and some also believe that there are some things brothers just do not do. a brother rapes his blood sister? hey, some insist that behavior is for the other man and not the brother man. you know, i think the word incest gives some a bad taste in their mouths. we need tio deal with this evil like so many other evils that haunt aur community. where do we start?

Personally...I'm not sure their is way to stop such abuse. I guess just be more protective of your child but you can't really do jack about someone elses unless that child is willing to stand up for themselves... Pending on what they got to lose....

Sounds like a good idea to me....:p

Was it not you that longed for that old time parenting, that kind where neighbors would touch your children in trying to discipline them. IS that not what you asked for, and how could you expect somethign , but then on the other hand incest and child sexual abuse thrive in those same situations. Not simply incest, but child sex abuse as well just grows like weeds in situations like that.

You can not have it both ways my friend, we will either respect our children and the children of others en masse, or we will offer them up on the altar of sexual abuse.

I may not ba able to protect my children from a sexual predator, but I will not let anyone feel free to touch them, nor do I have any want or desire to touch anyone else's children. So wither we move parenting into the 21st century or we continue to do it the old way and suffer the way we are used to.

. . . but I think it has taken what was once a general idea 30 years agoand turned it toward today where it doesn't fit to well. Yes, once upon a time"the village" helped raise the child but with today's litigous society that is an absurdity. No one wants anyone to tell their children anything much less touch them. Part of this has been brought about by hard lessons and the other part is through stupidity. The stupidity being the part that if you do not discipline your kids then they will be kicked out, abandoned and left behind because no one wants to do it for fear of being accussed of child molestation or even speaking unkind words to a child who truly needs his or her *** whipped. Of course, no one would do it. As an college instructor, I had a little more freedom to discipline my students although I never laid a hand on them. I had the power to put you out of my class--that simple. Of course they became someone else's problem and so it continued.

I never counseled a female student by myself without another female instructor there to be a witness. My youngest son coaches a girl's socker team and he does not touch at all, not even in congratulations. It is sad but true, people will sue you at the drop of a hat and children who become pissed off at an adult know that a charge of sexual harassment is dvastating to the adult, so we steer clear and say let the mother******s burn and look after our own which is also sad.

Too many black parents leave the discipline of direction their children to the public sector and then when something happens they want to sue. We can't have it both ways. So, I say discipline your children at home. Teach them to beware of strangers. Teach them about molestation so they know that what uncle Joe is doing is bad. We have to do it ourselves.

for some strange reason we have this collective memory of something that did not occur in the way we keep remembering it. while it is true that there may have been some disciplining of children by neighbors (yeah, right, discipline!), the fact is that more people were abused by that very same situation. What often becomes of the abused child is that they turn into abusers, so we are dealing witrh the effects of generations of abuse, not something that happens outside of history. We have to keep in mind that every thing that happens today, does so because of, not inspite of yesterday.

When we realize how wrong we were then, then we can get to the healing quicker. The rash of litigation is also a product of out past, and the fact that we do not feel as though we can trust adults around our children, which is not in itself, a foolish precaution. If a pervert wants children, all they need do is be around childen. Of course this makes it hard for the people that do really want to help, but that is the price we pay.

C'mon, admit that our parents, and their parents before them were wrong in the way they raised childen. They were, they were wrong. We will continue in error unless we recognize the error of their ways as well as ours.

As you have seen from the responses--you are not alone--incest steals th ebest part of a child and putds them in a world they were never intended to see until much later and not with a family member--I hurt for you and I hurt for all, because it is not right--the wounds will heal, but the scars tissues stays a life time--heal, share and forge ahead.

Ra

I am so proud of you... I just turned 21 back in December and from the time I gratuated in October to now...my life has shaped and changed and grown and came out for the better. I have to thank my boyfriend for that. He gave me the strength to face up to my biggest fear. My stepfather.... I knew it had to be done...I knew it needed to be done. They came to bring my brother into town this weekend and i told my mother that i wanted to talk to her and him. I told them what i thought..How i felt...and how i wanted to deal with things from here on out. He admitted his crimes to my mother in front me...I guess know she has to find take things in stride...she's apologize to me time and time again...I think its kind of getting to her now. As for him...in my life he no longer resides and i made that known to him. My boyfriend asked me if i felt any better now that i got all of what i've been feeling for the last 16 years off my chest. And to tell you the truth i don't know. I thought facing it and letting it go would help...but i feel no change in me. I will say I am more at peace. I sleep better at night. I guess now is the start of a new life. Wish me luck on my journey...as I hope you continue on with yours. In a sense it feels good not to be a lone...but at the same time...you just can't help to be. Because no matter how strong....we always ask....Why me?....

My Sister....

It is amazing the amount of compassion shown from various people responding to this article. I have talked to some personally and other have written to tell me their stories. I thank all of you for sharing your feelings and love.

Amun-Ra

:heart:

I am glad I've found someone who realizes this heinous act goes on more than it is reported. I am was the victim of incest for more than five years from the time I was ten until I finally stopped it at fifteen. My mother was a very loving woman in some ways but refused to belive me when I told her. For five years she would ignore my pleas to not be left alone with her husband and the abuse would continue not just me but also my younger sister. As a result I am hyper sensitive around males and unfortunatley more so around men of my own race. The man that did this died in prison (for unrelated crimes) before I became an adult. My mother killed herself the year after I stopped her husband. Guilt and depression killed her. I have since learned that she too was abused. This is a cycle I've sworn to never let happen to my children. It's effects are too devastating. Thank you for bringing up this topic. It's about time someone addressed it.

Mann..that was deep. My family has been torn apart by this exact topic your talking about, and it suprisingly wasn't the incest that did it...it was a fight between people who wanted the situation to end and were willing to go to the police, and people who wanted to keep it quiet. I wish I could get my family to read this article, but that would be the war of the century.

We are all survivors... wounded... but we survived.. And ready to make a change.. a better way i do pray...

for him--Uncle John was way off base and he indeed reaped what he sowed. Unfortunate, in the black community too many men and women get away with it--Ra

There once was a young girl who had an uncle. Uncle John would often babysit her. As she grew older Uncle John no longer saw her as a baby, but as a conquest. He first started out by fondling her, and then he moved to having sex with her. She was emotionally a wreck. She knew what happened was wrong, but felt it was her fault. She became introverted and withdrawn. She closed herself off from those around her. everyone knew something was up. One day while Uncle John was babysitting, the Watcher decided to double back to the house, to the Watcher's dismay he saw Uncle John holding the young girl down about to penetrate her as usual. Watcher busted in and put a beatdown on Uncle John, yet the damage is done. The young girl is still undergoing therapy but with the help of the almighty she'll be alright. Meanwhile Uncle John don't come around anymore...After he regained the ability to walk, he did a stint of 10 yrs for his deed...In those 10 yrs behind bars Uncle John became the little girl.

Whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reapeth.


*True Story....The little girl was my Goddaughter, her uncle was her mother's brother and used to be my close friend....She's now 19 and doing fine.