Religion is very important to millions of people all over the world. Sometimes people encounter challenges within their religion when it comes to outside forces that ask them to potentially believe in something that they may not support. As is this story where a Black mother raising her son in the South as he begins to experience signs of schizophrenia. It reminds her of her aunt who suffered from hearing voices many years earlier. She attempts to follow what she had been taught in the church; she immediately went to her parents for guidance who told her that with the right amount of prayer they would be able to save him from anything. Unfortunately, as her son began to become more and more disconnected, even asking her at one point if she would take him to the doctor. But when presented with this option she is told by her parents that there is nothing the doctor can do that the church can't do. This is a heartbreaking story of a reality that happens far too often of the internal fight that people experience between religion and believing that an outside force such as a doctor can assist with things like mental illnesses. In this specific story Bobby, her son, leaves her notes to remind her how much he loves her and how he doesn't want her to worry about him. But as we know the job of a parent is to worry from the day that they are born until the day they die. A heartbreaking story where a mother has to lose her son, to on the other side realize that there may have been something that she could have done for him before he died.
Listening to Notes
The greatest gift that I was ever given was the position of being a mother. My son Robert, but we call him Bobby, came into this world like he was already running a race and he had things to do. From the time I went into labor to the time that Bobby took his first breath was less than 30 minutes. My mother would say, “Now that boy is in a hurry. He got things to do, and we better get out of his way!” That is exactly how I raised him. I listened to my mother, as Black children are taught to do. I believe the fifth commandment says, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12. I believed. I listened. I memorized nearly every scripture and every lesson that was taught to me every Sunday morning when we went to church. I did everything that I was supposed to do as a good Black Christian woman. Growing up in the South you can get wrapped up in the wrong people telling you to do the wrong things, but my Momma and my Daddy said that if I went to church and if I believed, if I stood by my faith, that my life would be glorious with gifts and happiness. It all landed at my feet. My greatest gift was Bobby and while his father didn’t live to meet his son, I knew that my family and I would love him enough for both of us. Then one day it was stolen from me, taken away to a place that I didn't know how to reach in the arms of a soul that I could not escape from. I lost my baby.