Latoya

In doing what we do , we meet the most interesting, wonderful people….

people who somehow make your life richer for having been in it.

Sometimes you don’t even realize that they have niggled their way into your heart until they are firmly established there.

 Many of the Baby U parents in our last graduating class were just like that. Each class has had a different personality and this class seemed to have a wonderful thirst for knowledge. There are always some who are just there for the freebies. That is to be expected in doing what we do. Our job is to figure out which ones are willing to learn and run with it.

 This class however…was different.

 First of all we had a record number of dads attending, do you know how rare that is in our neighborhood?! A dad who is present in their child’s life …. and not only present but participating in a parenting class? That’s pretty cool. There were two teen dads , both with teen moms expecting their first child. There was a teen dad that after our class on reading to your child, read to his unborn child every week.  There was a single, older dad who fought CSB for custody of his 3 year old twin boys and won, even though he was older than most parents of toddlers and even though he can’t read. Those boys are his life. Everything he does is for them.

 Here’s our class…..

And then there was Lotoya… at first she really wasn’t too sure about us, but quickly established herself in our class.

 She was a single mom of two little girls, Miracle, 7 and Madison 3. Latoya was a talker. She called Monica , her outreach worker, every single day, sometimes more than once, just to check in and see what was going on. She interrupted me constantly in class, always talking about her kids and her family. She was one of these people who always smiled while she was talking, so it was impossible to be irritated with her interrupting.  She talked about her struggles with her kids and the funny things they would say when she was trying to discipline them. She talked a lot about her grandparents who had passed away in the last couple of years and how much she really missed them. It was clear that she had had some significant losses in her life.  She joked and teased constantly. She threatened to quit Baby U every week if she didn’t win the weekly gift card drawing. She teased the big burly teen dads who rarely spoke even though she was about half their height. She came to every single class and each week told me how much money she had saved up with the Toy R Us gift cards she had received for attending. At our next to last class she proudly told me that she had $80 in gift cards saved up and couldn’t wait to go shopping for Miracle’s Birthday coming up. That was the last time we saw her.

On a Friday morning, just before our Saturday Baby U graduation and picnic, we got a phone call informing us that the young mom and three year old girl who had passed away in a fire that morning were our Latoya and Madison.  We were stunned and devastated. We had really come to love her.

The next day, at our graduation we took time to remember her and pray for her family. There were a lot of tears. There was a big hole in our class where Latoya should have been. We made our picnic a celebration of the lives of Latoya and Madison.

I like to think that Latoya knew Jesus. I am told that she attended a church that preaches the gospel. She definitely heard the gospel every week at Baby U. I like to think that she had a happy reunion with her grandparents and most of all is enjoying the presence of our Lord.

She will definitely not be forgotten and if there is anything we have learned, it is to hug people a little tighter, tell them often how much you love  and appreciate them and be faithful with the Word because you really never know when you will never see someone again….

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage --- with great patience and careful instruction.