Dementia for 2

The house was nothing special. Like so many in rural Alabama in the early 1900s, it was small hot and full of people. Mainly babies. Crying, hungry, deserted babies. This was the local Salvation Army adoption agency and the beginning of my grandmother’s life. It is also the beginning of my life.

The small, sad man waited on the front porch as the grieving young woman went inside. Losing a child is never easy especially in these hard times. My great-grandmother was a practical, hard, bitter woman. Her choice to replace her dead son was a practical one based on necessity not love or the need to nurture an unwanted child. The story goes that she walked in and heard my grandmother crying the loudest. She is said to have chosen her because she was hungry and my great-grandmother’s breasts were painfully full.

She scoops the wailing child into her arms and walks out. The man sitting on the porch takes the child and they go home. So begins the struggle to gain a mother’s love.

I am not sure how long they lived in Alabama after the adoption. All that is known for sure is that the parents, John and Prudence Bazore aptly named their new daughter Temperance and moved to Mississippi.




While names have been changed and I did have to add some details to give the story a less bleak feel, the gist of it is true. Let me know what you think!