Free What I Remember Most by Cathy Lamb Page B

the hippie colors on it.
     
    The others were of a family of smiley raccoons in a tree, the dad raccoon had a beard and the mom raccoon had a red shawl. And the other painting had a girl deer with lilies around her neck. Pretty!
     
    She showed me her bedroom. She has a pink bedspread and a white table and dresser. I asked her if she was excited to go to school in the fall, but she said she wasn’t going to school and that her parents taught her all the school she needed. She is a funny child.
     
    She looked at Mrs. Berlinsky a lot, so I think the happy bond is growing.
     
    I inquired with Mrs. Berlinsky if Grenadine had been to the doctor for a checkup recently, and she said it was on her schedule for ‘to do’ next week, and I asked if she had made the appointment with the counselor, and she said she would do that, too, that they were getting Grenadine all settled down, welcoming her to the home.
     
    The home looks messy, but Adelly assured me it was because she had been sickly with pneumonia. The father had left for another two-week trip for his trucking job, which Mrs. Berlinsky thought was good because he gives so much attention to Grenadine, the boys were getting jealous. Boys get jealous like that!
     
    Grenadine is flourishing like a sunny flower in this home, except for a few bruises, which Mrs. Berlinsky says is from all of her playing and skipping and hopping around outside that Grenadine is doing. The family has two dogs, a cow, goats, chickens, and three kitty cats.
     
    She is young and will get over her parents leaving her.
     
    Connie Valencia
    Children’s Services Division
    Child’s Name: Grenadine Scotch Wild
    Age: 6
    Parents’ Names: Freedom and Bear Wild (Location Unknown)
    Date: November 14, 1982
    Goal: Adoption
    Employee: Connie Valencia
     
    I visited with Grenadine today. She wanted to know where her parents were, if they had been found, and I said no, they weren’t found, not yet, but the police were looking. She cried and she still looks thin like a skeleton (That’s an expression!) and pale. I asked Mrs. Berlinsky if the child had been taken for her checkup and she said no, so we had a long and prickly disagreeable fightlike conversation about that.
     
    The other two children, the boys, were teasing Grenadine. One of them called her “their pet dog.” The other one called her “Ruff Ruff.” I told the boys, “Don’t be naughty!” Grenadine kept leaning towards me. I think she’s still shy of the boys. I had two brothers and I felt shy around them too, sometimes!!
     
    I talked with Mrs. Berlinsky about the teasing, and she told me she would talk to the boys. She says that Grenadine is a good girl but all she wants to do is art projects, so she asked that we buy art supplies for her, but I told her that the supplies can be bought with the money she is paid monthly for the child. Mrs. Berlinsky said she couldn’t afford to buy the child crayons, and we had another prickly fightlike conversation.
     
    There are marks around Grenadine’s neck, but Mrs. Berlinsky said it was because she’d helped Grenadine make a necklace of flowers and branches and a buzzing bee stung her. Grenadine has bruising on the arms, but Mrs. Berlinsky says the children play and skip around outside a lot, climbing in the loft of the barn, over the fence to the meadow, and playing in the stream.
    Grenadine’s hair seemed thinner, but I think it’s because it was back in a ponytail, like a little horse.
     
    Grenadine is doing well in this home, I think, and this placement is healthy and safe. I am not healthy, though! This darn cold. Sorry I’ve missed so much work lately! Poor me.
     
    Connie Valencia
     
     
    Children’s Services Division
    Child’s Name: Grenadine Scotch Wild
    Age: 7 (I think!)
    Parents’ Names: Freedom and Bear Wild (Location Unknown)
    Date: February 16, 1983
    Goal: Adoption
    Employee: Connie Valencia
     
    I visited Grenadine and she is thriving in the home.
     
     
    Children’s