Taking Custody To Save His Life
I always considered myself a person with very few fears. But when I think about fear, the first thing that comes to my mind is the memory of a very long chapter in my life.
By: Esther
Age: 55
Gender: Female
City: Tegucigalpa
Many years ago, back when my now married children were just in school, I had the opportunity to preside the school’s Parents Association. Under that role I got very involved with social beneficence, helping kids that needed academic and economic assistance. We developed several programs that helped with food, uniforms, school supplies and medicine. But for one child, all of that help didn’t really mean much.
A sad and absent little face, incapable of performing at school, going on days with no sleep, no food, bruises in his body and tails of a horror movie were the trigger that led me to make decisions that even with the fear I felt I would never regret.
Sammy was a little boy who had been abandoned by his mother and was living with his father, an emotionally and mentally unstable violent man. He had tried to take his own life several times, and every time we tried offering help by taking care of the boy, he would threaten with committing suicide.
We tried helping the father with medical and psychiatric attention, thinking that it could help Sammy. Every school year that passed was a miracle for the little boy. During vacation time we would pay summer camps so he could be far from home. I even brought him to sleep at my house several times, but they were all temporary solutions. Eventually we needed to return him to his legal custodian; his father.
One day I received a call from the school to go see Sammy as he was notably perturbed. He was wearing a jacket even though it was about 90 degrees.
He was hiding a cut that stretched across his entire forearm.
Sammy couldn’t resist telling me that his father had cut him with a knife. I felt sickened, guilty of not having done enough to prevent that from happening. That’s when I realized that nothing that we had done was working. That after all these years of caring and support outside his home it was not enough, and that no help would really save Sammy unless we legally took him from his father.
In other countries, child welfare programs could’ve been an alternative, but in a Latin-American underdeveloped country, unfortunately it wasn’t a viable solution for protecting the boy. Turning him in to the authorities was losing him forever.
It was me who had to make the decision to start a legal fight over the boy’s custody and take his father to court. So with the help of other community leaders we put together a legal team and started building the case. At that point the need to help Sammy for good was greater than the fear of what his father would do.
The very next day, after considering several alternatives, I approached one of Sammy’s teachers who had recently lost her husband and did not have any family in the country. She was very lonely and knew Sammy very well, so it was a win-win situation. Without hesitating much, she agreed to taking care of Sammy and becoming his legal custodian.
I still see her as one of the angels put in this world to save that boy’s life.
Shortly after, I was in court fighting over Sammy’s future, trying to save him from a person who never knew how to love a son. Giving that step meant assuming responsibility for the life of a boy filled with fear, sadness and lack of hope. It was hard, but even harder was not doing anything about it.
After a long and consuming process, righteousness prevailed. I took Sammy with me until his new home was ready. That same day I started receiving threatening calls from the father who days later even showed up at my front door with a knife in his hand. Weeks passed by where I couldn’t sleep. I was so scared for my children. If that person was capable of doing what he did to his own son, he could’ve done anything to my kids.
Even though my kids never knew about the details in this horrible story, the life experience they had knowing they were helping a boy in much need is unforgettable. I’m glad to see now how they’ve become caring adults willing to lend a hand to people in need and teach my grandchildren the same values.
A couple of years after Sammy had moved to his new home, the father had a stroke and passed away. The teacher had given Sammy a loving home, and with the help of our community Sammy had everything a kid could ever wish for.
After turning 18, Sammy decided to migrate and start a new life in a new country. He is now an exemplary man living a healthy and successful life with a lot to give to this world.
Do good and you’ll always be right.
Watch Josh Shipp’s TEDx Talk “Every Kid is ONE Caring Adult Away From Being a Success Story.” Do not be afraid to become that adult if you have the chance.
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