EPISODE 1
"JUST
WORDS"

Welcome to JUST WORDS.  The stories of working people in our community.

Dope. My daughter is on dope, and do you know I didn’t know what to look for? I didn’t know how a person looked on dope! The worker told me what she looked like.  The little boy fell out the window.   The worker called me asked me if I would take him, so I took him.

Lucille Robinson is a grandmother…like 12000 other grandparents in the city of Baltimore she is raising her grandchildren because of death, divorce, drug addiction or incarceration.  For a time she had foster parent status and lost it because of a leaky roof in a home she didn’t even own.

I was married in Columbia, nice home.  I was married and depended on him to take care of us, and he didn’t do it.  We came to Baltimore city, had a fire, and the marriage broke up. They always say a woman without a mate is poor, and I became poor real quick.  But then there is a foster grandparent grant.  As taking my grandchildren, took months before I received anything…And when the house I lived in over Chelsea Terrace that needed the roof fixed, they cut money off…when they cut money off I went downhill like someone pushed me on sled… I had to go thru welfare, we had a fire, kids had no blankets, no sheets, and believe me the welfare do not help you with these things.  Over there when I finally get on my feet again, they snatched the money.  Nobody could have never told me in Columbia that I would be in the state that I am right now...I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but when I think about how I done  come down at my age…nobody  could have ever told me at my age I would be without a mate, financially broke.  I keep saying it isn’t just me alone, when you go on welfare you see lots of young ppl but when I see old people coming in, my age, I say, my god, look at us coming in here begging for help. Baltimore city has no pity on grandparents.  You hear me; I think almost you could point.  When I lost my home I said to myself, lord, I even called a shelter because I felt like I was to the point I was going in a shelter, because I didn’t know what else to do.  I had been to everyplace and no place could I afford. Give $700 a month you can’t rent no place. Here I am finally, everything I make goes into this place.  I send $725 a month away, my whole social security, it’s gone.  So…but.  We still, we’re surviving, we really are, we’re really surviving...don’t ask me how, I just don’t know…God, I wish I could stop crying.  I don’t know how we are making it.  I just know my children and grandchildren are surviving this day, and we’re going to beat it. 

"JUST WORDS" is a production of the Center for Emerging Media, produced by Jessica Phillips, through a grant by the Open Society Institute, investing in solutions to Baltimore’s toughest problems.  On the web at OSI-Baltimore.org.  For the rest of Lucille Robinsons story, go to CenterforEmergingMedia.org, and I’m Marc Steiner, thanks for listening to JUST WORDS.

Music:  Nina Simone, When I was in my Prime
Nina Simone, Plain Gold Ring