Hopelessness | Teen Ink

Hopelessness

October 28, 2017
By Anonymous

 I was just nine years old, when I noticed how hard life can be, especially when you’re living in poverty. Growing up was such a difficult chapter of my life and for my family. My father left us when my youngest sister, Rachel was born. Life still wasn’t the best when my father was with us but we really didn’t struggle a lot. My Mom had to take the role of both parents for my sister, Daisy, Rachel, and me, Michelle. We did struggle a lot but I had just turned 11 years old when our lives went to hell to the best we could of asked for.
  We really didn’t have much money. My mom only had one job, she was a hard worker and always tried to give us everything we needed. We weren’t the richest family, we weren’t even close to being in middle class. We were poor. We did struggle a lot, but in this city, in Detroit, there isn’t a lot of opportunities/support. My Mom worked for a rich family, The Adams, but they would pay her $5 each hour and worked for 8 hours each week, so we wouldn't have enough money by the end of each week. The Adams family would take advantage, but they like to complain how living in Detroit is an ugly place filled with homeless people everywhere they go, but they do nothing to help change that. My mom tried talking to her about donating money but Mrs. Adams got mad and fired her.
  “You can’t just come in my house thinking you have a voice here. You are poor and no one cares for what you have to say. Now you can walk yourself out and don’t come back here anymore!” Mrs. Adams really didn’t give a s*** about lower classmen at all. The only reason why she gave my Mom a job was because she wanted her own personal “servant”.  My Mom ran out the door crying. Mrs. Adams just turned around and smiled.
  I heard my mom unlocking the beaten up wooden door to our little studio apartment so I waited with my sisters. As my Mom finally enters, my sisters runs up to her and gives her the biggest hug ever.
  “We missed you Mommy!” They both say so innocently
  “I missed you too sweethearts, but mommy has to rest okay? Go play with your toys.” Both of my sisters looked confused. Why would my mom tell them to go play with their toys if they don’t have any. Something must be wrong. I was only nine but I understood our problems and what we were going through.
  “Mother, what’s wrong?” I felt a bad feeling in my gut that whatever she was going to tell was was something I didn’t want to hear.
“Nothing. You shouldn’t be worrying about anything, Michelle.” The way she said that, you could just tell that something was wrong.
  “Mom, I can help you with whatever it is.” I was determined to help my mom out. I love her so much. She’s my everything and I don’t like seeing her sad.
  “Mrs.Adams fired me today. You can’t help me on this one. I know you want to help, but you need to understand that this is my problem. I am not letting you help me out on this one, Chell.” You can see the tears in her eyes. She was trying so hard to keep them in. You can tell she felt hopeless.
  “You have to understand! You need my help, Mom. You can not do this alone.” I almost started to cry. We barely have enough money for the rent and now she doesn’t have a job. We only have two pair of outfits and one old pair of shoes. We don’t have a lot, sometimes we don’t enough money to eat up to two meals each day. My mom doesn’t have a job and now I was thinking that we might become homeless. I couldn’t let that happen, I needed to do something to help out my Mom and so my sisters can have a better future.
The next day, my mom, sisters and I went to go look for a job for my mom. We first stopped at a gas gation but they wouldn't give Mother a job. Later we stopped at a big, shiny glass building. We went to speak with the manger and right away I can tell he was such a nice guy. He was wearing a nice, expensive suit. His hair was nicely combed to the side. He was kinda tall, his bread was not too long. His face looked so welcoming.
“What can I help you with, Ma'am?” He was such a gentleman. I noticed he couldn’t keep his eyes off my mother. I couldn’t blame him, my mom is so beautiful. She has long hair, the perfect skin color, not too pale but not too dark.
  “I was wondering if you were hiring, I really need a job,” again, she said it so hopely, “I’ll do anything, just please give me a chance.”
  “Well perfect timing because I do in fact need to hire someone. How does working as my assistant sound to you?” He seemed like he really wanted my mom to work for him.
“An assistant? But I’m afraid I'm not qualified for this position, Sir.” Why does my mom always sound so hopeless?
“That’ll be alright, I can teach you.” he said with the biggest smile on his face,
  Months later, my mom settled in for Mr. Cooper’s assistant and sooner or later more than just co-workers. A few weeks after Mr. Cooper gave my mom the job, they started to date and he eventually became my mom’s boyfriend! I never thought my mom would allow herself to date again, not after when my real dad left us. My mom and Mr. Cooper were taking things fast and serious because after seven months, we moved in with Mr. Cooper. He was really nice to us and Daisy and Rachel really loved him. We were lived through a lot and I thank God for putting Mr. Cooper in our lives.
  Our lives were hell and good thing Mrs. Adams fired my mom because then we wouldn’t of met Mr, Cooper and we would of been struggling and in poverty for a long, long time. Mr. Cooper saved us and for the first time in forever, my mother didn’t seem so hopeless. She finally looked happy. We were all happy.


The author's comments:

We had to write a memoir about poverty for one of our classes and I felt like writing about how a person's life is affected and how they live in poverty because i felt like we need to know.


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