Page 16 - DAPHNE HART - MY MAMA STORY (AUDIO VERSION)

CHAPTER FOUR

T
ime passed slowly, and the months turned to years, but the
arguments never really stopped. They just became a little less

loud. We were very poor, but I didn't even know it, we had a

roof over our heads, a yard to play in, and fresh fruit on the trees to eat
whenever we were hungry.

I loved playing in the fields among the wildflowers, but one day I got
stung by a Bee on my eyelid. It swelled shut and it hurt really bad. But

my mom put a special kind of leaf on it, and in a short time, the swelling
went down.

When I got older—about six or seven years old—my stepfather who by

this time I called Dada because that is what I heard my brother call him,
took us to buy my first pair of shoes, my first real new pair of shoes. In

those days, kids wore what was called crepe, made from cloth or
canvas.

We got to the store and I tried the first pair of shoes I saw. It was really

tight but pretty so I pretended it fit me, so he paid for it, and we took it
home. I told him it fit perfectly because I didn’t want him to change

his mind and not buy it. It was called patent leather.

Imagine we walked all those miles to buy these shoes and brought them

home and I couldn't wear them. Needless to say, I never got another
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