Cheri's Story

I have known one young lady who ran away from her home and through the grace of God made it back after almost a year. She was 14 when she left with an adult man.

She still has many issues and I pray she doesn't wander off again. Additionally, I knew two girls who I loved very much who were both killed. Both I met while working in a middle-school environment. Both were in foster care. I tried to become the foster parent for one, but never could get it worked out before they moved her again. I spoke with her about a month before I'd gone through the final editing process for my book, "Plenty Good Room," which is set in the child-welfare environment. Several weeks later at the end of morning exercise session I heard them announce it was her body that had been found floating in the lake in a neighboring town. She was hit in the face with a crowbar, bound and left to die. She was 19 and only 95 pounds. She left a daughter behind and is the second sister to die a violent death. The second young lady was my foster daughter and lived with me for several months. She moved with me from a residential center and I think had problems adjusting to being in a home. Her previous adoption had broken and she'd lost the lawyer mother and doctor father who had raised her to her teen years. She left my house without permission one day and I gave her an ultimatum and she decided to move. The next home was more permissive and soon she was everywhere according to other kids in school. By the time they moved her to a more restrictive environment it seemed to be too late.

Her photo was on the internet describing her as a missing child on and off. They put her in a locked environment, but as soon as they stepped her down, she ran again. Almost two years after they'd found her, someone finally told me she was dead. Her body was found on the side of the road. She was 17 when she was killed and probably had no one to even attend her funeral, if there was one.

Thank you for your site.  And, I pray with you for our children. I don't know what happened to 'Big Mama' and the 'Aunties' and neighbors who used to keep children covered even when their parents didn't, couldn't or just needed help. I hope that for the sake of our community and all of our children, we rediscover concern for those youth outside of our immediate family.

by Cheri