Page 27 - DAPHNE HART - MY MAMA STORY (AUDIO VERSION)

CHAPTER SEVEN

M
y stepfather did not think education was important. All
he thought I needed to do was be able to read, write, and

do arithmetic—as he called it, "cypher," meaning to be

able to calculate or count money. He, you see, was as dumb as a bat; he
could neither read nor write.

Growing up, I felt that something was not right. There would always
be quarreling between my parents over something I just didn’t

understand. He had this practice of sharpening his machete with a threat
that he was going to chop us all up. To this day, I hate the sound of an

object being sharpened with a file.

My brothers would do mean things to me and threaten to beat me up if
I said anything.

Happy to say, I was what they would call a bright child in school.
Teachers saw my potential, even though I had a speech impediment.

When I got older, my teacher offered to give after-school lessons to me

and other kids. There were twenty of us selected.

Whoever passed certain tests would be able to go on to higher learning.

In today’s world, it’s called a scholarship. Then I would eventually go
to high school. My desire was to be a teacher myself one day. But that

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