A chance in the world…

My Son knows his Mother.  His Father.  His Sister.  He is loved unconditionally.  He sleeps in a warm, clean bed.  He has not experienced hunger.  Real hunger.  Yet, some (many) others in this world…”not so much.”

Part 1 of this book is called “An Orphan Boy.”  Beginning at 3 years old, Stephen Pemberton, is bounced from one foster family (who neglects him) to another – – The Robinsons…who can best be described as monstrous.   He’s subjected to merciless beatings – – deliberate attempts to thwart his academic progress — and he’s hungry, always hungry.  He’s not permitted to open the refrigerator – ever.  He’s required to adhere to a series of Robinson Rules which include #1-You are to never tell anyone outside this house about what goes on here.  #2-We aren’t your mother and father. You call us ma’am and sir.  #4-You are dumb, and ugly.  Something about you isn’t right.  Everybody knows this.  #7-We can beat you at any moment.  #8-No one wants you, especially your own mother and father.  Young Pemberton finds refuge in books.  He is a reader.  A kind soul, a neighbor, who sees a spark in this child – gifts him books.  He’s forced to read in a cold, dank basement.

I came to live not just in fear but abject terror, the kind that rises up and takes over every sense of your being.  Years later, long after the hunger and beatings were no longer residents of my mind, it would be that fear that would be that last to leave.

Two thoughts ran through my mind as I as reading Part 1: MY SON IS SAFE.  And secondly, PEOPLE (some) AIN’T NO GOOD. (Nick Cave’s song ran on perpetual replay in my mind as I read this book and I had to share it…)

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Part II of this book is titled: “A Mysterious Past.”  The boy, now a young man, escapes the horrors with the help of a social worker and a teacher in an Upward Bound Program.  He is accepted into the college of his dreams (Boston College) and begins to wonder about his past.  His family.  His name.

What a remarkably different path he has taken when compared to my son who is awaiting decision on his college application to the same college.  How little we know about people around us.  What challenges they have faced.  What difficulties they have overcome.

It is impossible to tell from a single glance, the journeys someone has traveled, the experiences that have made them who they are.

Part III of this book is titled “The Journey Home” where Pemberton marries and has his own children.

What I treasured most was lying on the couch with a child resting on my chest, hearing his or her tiny breath deepen as we both slowly faded off to sleep. In the evenings, long after baths were taken, I found myself standing at their bedsides, marveling at their deep and innocent sleep, their breaths rising and falling in perfect rhythm with the universe.  I would lean over to kiss them and, despite the depth of their slumber, they sighed in response.  There was so much I wanted them to know: that I loved them with all that I was; that I would travel this path a thousand times, knowing it would bring me to their bedsides; that they had righted every wrong in my life; that being their father had quieted my soul.

And he begins to uncovers his family and his family story.

I had discovered that my mother and father had left me to the winds of chance…intent on building my own family, I had moved forward with my life, but it had always deeply puzzled me how any parent could so easily abandon a child.

How?  How did Stephen Pemberton survive?  What gave him his strength to persevere?

In the most difficult times, I always found comfort in prayer.  I first discovered this comfort as a small boy in the basement of the house on Arnold Street. I didn’t know how to pray; the Robinsons rarely went to church.  Still I found that peace and quiet and strength often followed my humble requests.  I talked to God the way one talked to a best friend…

What an incredible story of redemption and reconciliation…and the strength of the human spirit.  This book made me come alive – and appreciate how good life, my life really is.

Life is Good.