Creative Response

Dear Eva Barnes,
Hello Eva. I read your story on Division Street and thought your story was very touching. The way you struggled to build your life so that your children would not have to do the same, was inspiring. I watched my mother do the same for me when I was a little boy. My mother came here from a poor country with her brothers and sisters and had nothing, but me in my mother’s womb. I watched and heard my mother go through a lot of racial and gender conflicts growing up; along with her struggles in the workforce, going from flee market to mail clerk to architectural designer. The weight on her shoulders even more since she had no higher education here in America with two kids. I can’t understand everything about your life, but I do understand that part.

So I was wandering what you are up to now and how your children turned out to be. Are you still working? I would assume if you are still here that you would be working because your story seemed to indicate that you like to always be doing something productive. How are your children? Did they grow up to be the way you wanted? Did they finish all the education you had planned for the? My mother always wanted me to go to college, and it took a very long time for me to do so. I’m in college now and my mother loves it and though she would never tell me, I can tell she is very proud of the fact. I think you’re right with getting a higher education, not that you needed it. But, it does wonders for the mind. I think you wanted your children to go to college, not because you thought they would be able to get a job, but so they could know more about this world and be better prepared to make choices in life.

I also wanted to let you know that your husband is a lucky guy. It’s not every day a man can find a woman as emotionally strong as you must have been to go through what you went through. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to be a woman in the times you where in and still have fun and stay loveable, while still going against the grain. I respect people like my mother and you. It inspires me to learn and work harder so I can teach my children about the world and to give them the freedoms of choice, as I’m sure you did with your children.

Did you ever keep in touch with the people you worked with? Whatever happened to your co-workers from the butcher place? I know in your story you said that people understood that it wasn’t your fault that a black woman got laid off instead of you; but I was wondering if any of the other employees treated you different because it wasn’t you? Did you ever talk to them about it? I always wondered before I had children why people who are marginalized on occasion accepted mistreatment, but I think the welfare of our families is the answer now a days; Especially in the economy of your time.

I recall from your story that you mentioned the discrimination in pay. Did you ever think that you’d see the day when we would have an African American as President, and that president sign a bill into law, enforcing equality in pay? It’s a great thing when you can see the evolution of a society. I bet things would’ve been a little easier for you if this would have happened in your time when you struggling. I wish that bill could’ve been passed when I was little, then maybe my mother wouldn’t have had to work so much (she should’ve had more free time to herself).

Well it’s been real, but I have to stop writing now. You take care now miss and thank you for your story.

Sincerely,

Me