Ruth

I'm originally from New York City, from Spanish Harlem. My parents are both Jamaican immigrants. I have three brothers and myself, so we're first generation Americans. In Spanish Harlem, it's not like how we see immigrants coming here nowadays. They came here, they didn't go through Ellis Island. I think that's through Europe or something. But they flew over here. So my mother was first in Black Harlem.

Their story is so cute because, before my mother left to come to America, she had a church revival in Jamaica. She knew she was leaving and coming to America, right? She's living with her auntie and she gets a letter and it's her mother approving her marriage to my dad. My dad saw her on that revival thing and he approached her, found out who the mother was, and asked her for her hand in marriage, and she said yes. He writes her and says, “Oh, your mother said, it's okay, I'll marry you. Do you accept it?” She goes, “Yeah.” I said, What? So that's how that happened. And, she had to go back to Jamaica, they got married, and this whole sponsor thing, she had to wait eight years for that to get to New York.

So the Jamaican community was not like Little Italy or Spanish Town. I had found out recently about the African diaspora. Duh. After all these years. Anyway, you live and learn, right? I just found out that in the 50’s, there was Black people rising up, and so the United States didn't want the African Americans, that used to be slaves, now to have a better job. So the United States wrote England and asked them, is it okay for the Jamaicans—which at the time England still had Jamaica—So they said, “Do you mind if some of the Jamaicans come to America and work for us?” So that's the first, model citizen. I'm just learning about this. So that's how they came here.

But still, my dad had to wait for eight years for the visa. It was a small community, so we lived in Spanish Harlem and the rest of the Jamaicans that settled, they were able to live in Brooklyn. So we were the only oddball family that had to bridge the gap of this community and take the train—like three trains—to get to church, to be in this community. So we kept in the community. We would spend two hours and fifteen minutes on these three trains all together to get to church.

So we'd be at church on Sunday all day, and then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday we'd still be at church. After school there would be, young people with me getting a woman's group or Bible study, so we'd be on the train. They were determined, it was a little group of church people, but they tried their best. They really did.

The next community I found was after I left my parents’ home. I was dating this guy so I moved in with him. We moved to Brighton Beach, I was a block away from the beach. I, for some reason, decided to make my own little community my neighbor, Jewish—Brighton Beach was very Jewish—and she had a little dog. That was on my right hand side. And then with this lady from down south, who lived on my left hand side. I enjoyed talking with them, speaking, and interacting, especially—this was my first time interacting with a woman from down south, because, like I said, we're in this Jamaican bubble, so she told me about the south. Then the Jewish lady, unfortunately, she didn't have enough to eat, so I happily—back in the days, we used to know our neighbors and we'd share food with each other. It didn't matter. It was just a nice environment. It's different from now.

But anyway, so that was the other community that I enjoyed a lot—was that togetherness and the sharing of food. Sometimes we'd have a picnic or a gathering. People would, we'd hand out food. Brother, sister, it didn't matter. Spanish, whatever, it didn't matter. We just had a good time.

So then I came here to Rochester. I moved to Rochester in 1989, because at that time I had two daughters—I know I skipped a lot. So I had two daughters and one was 10, and the other one was 5. New York City just got so bad with the crack epidemic. It was just horrible. So I said, “I don't want my children to live like this,” because it was like one day it was not there and the next day we woke up and it was there. It was that quick and the community was in shock in Spanish Harlem. I said, “I can't live like this.”

I moved here first in ‘89. I didn't want to go on welfare. So, I told my family, “Okay, I'm going to come here and work for a year, establish a job and get an apartment and have it furnished.” Because I said, I refuse to be a welfare—I was just like, oh no. That's when I ended up getting an apartment at, Mercy Outreach Center.

I was in an apartment upstairs from the health center and I worked for the year, and the kids came up. I had worked for the Webster Avenue Family Resource Center. That was a community there, it was wonderful because it was a place where mothers could find respite, care for their children. If they had to go shopping, or do the laundry, or just take a nap. The mothers could come in and we'd schedule them in. At the time I was an office manager, scheduled them when to drop their child off. So that was cool because then I knew the mothers around the neighborhood which was good because then when my kids came, they knew mothers also. They'd have after school stuff at the Webster Avenue Family Resource Center. So it was good. It was good.

My eldest daughter at the time, she didn't like the Rochester community. Later on, going through nursing, and Psych 101, you never transfer a child from pre-adolescence. You never take them out of their environment and switch it. I was there thinking, “Oh my gosh, these kids gotta get out of this crack environment.” So, I had to send them back to New York City, but I stayed and I ended up just starting at MCC to get my prerequisites for my nursing. I was born in 1960, so back in the 60’s, when a child was asked what they want to do when they grow up, there was a—for a female—there was just limited, there was a teacher, the nurse, the secretary, the grocery store clerk.

Almeta

Home Maker.

Ruth

Oh, yes. So at five years old, I wanted to be a nurse. I had to be a nurse. “Oh no, no, no, you can't be a nurse.” “I want to be a nurse.” So when the kids went back, sent them back to New York City, that was the golden gate that was open.

In fact, I was an office manager here at that time, but I said “No.” I was a clerk typist, a secretary, administrative assistant office manager back in New York City. It took years, but I said, “No, I'm sick of this. I wanna become a nurse now.” So that's what I did.

I started out at MCC, and I started at the Sibley building. I used to live in Corn Hill, so then I could just walk to school, which was pretty cool, but I needed more of the sciences. They didn't have the labs in the Sibley building, so I had to go to the main campus, and yay! There was the art classes, the gym, the swimming pool. I just took advantage of everything. I had the sciences, I took art and a Phys-Ed class. It's about, this well rounded student, right? I was into everything, even racquetball with the young people.

It was just amazing with the racquetball. It was like, “We don't want you. You don't know how to play.” I'm 34 at that time and these are teenagers. So then I go down early and I practiced. I had that paddle ball, I learned how to switch hands, how to get it. And they said, “Oh my gosh, she knows how to play.” The girls team, we played the girls team. It would be the two girls against the best of the two guys. But there's a difference when—after taking all the sciences, nevermind, I won't get into that one.

Almeta

So you take us there and just leave us?

Ruth

No, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I said that I was brought up with three brothers, right? Me being a tomboy, I used to play football, and basketball, and race. There was a time we did a neighborhood race around this plaza pool thing and they said, “You can take twelve steps forward.” I said, “No, I'm going to start with everybody.” And I was just holding them up. So then, “Okay, you can start with the boys,” because I'm the only girl there. So then “On your mark, get set, go.” And I won. But all these times I'm playing these boys sports, I'm winning. Now that I know about going to college, about the women's growth and the male's growth, you get from a boy to a man, you're much stronger. And no, I wouldn't be winning after a certain age anymore because now I know, the men, they bulk up and who can deal with a man's body? At a younger age you can, but not as a full grown man, you can't go looking for a full grown man.

So that was that community, it was just wonderful what I've learned at MCC.

Then I went to U of R School of Nursing. I didn't, graduate from there because in my senior year, my parents had a health issue, so I had to move back down to New York City in Queens. Then I thought I could get into the nursing school at Hunter College so I applied there and was in there. But that was a three year waiting list. I said, “I don't have time for that.” So I did situate dad, his health improved and we got him situated. I came back up here. I found out that, Fisher just received their nursing program in ‘99. So they said, “Okay, welcome aboard. You'll start as a junior, since you've been out for a year, and this is a new nursing program.” I'd be the 15th student. I said, “Yes I'll be with you!” Because U of R was 85 students. Professor's doors were open, we didn't have to schedule with them. But now of course, I'm sure that changed tremendously.

I became disabled. Oh, I don't like using that—

Almeta

Your body became disabled. That’s what I say.

Ruth

Thank you, because I know I'm worth a lot. So, I started volunteering at the Mercy Outreach Center. You know, I used to live upstairs, but now I'm volunteering. It was just a unique atmosphere.

Almeta

Very diverse.

Ruth

Oh gosh. And not only could we be taking care of, but then we could also help with office duties: filing, doing the mail, cleaning, plant lady. I did sterilize the autoclave for the OBGYN stuff and dental stuff.

So that was a community it was very wonderful. It was perfect.

So they closed, and later on, I ended up volunteering at the House of Mercy, which is for people, homeless. We had the blood pressure clinic once a month and the pedicure clinic once a month for people with diabetes. We would soak their feet and give them a pedicure, do their toenails, I could trim them because I had my license. Because we don't want to see people with diabetes get an amputation—life is hard as it is. So this was a good way of assessing their feet, trimming their toenails, and even though I'm not working, at least I could help others—as I was stomping out the bed bugs. But that was reality. And thank God they have a much better place. I haven't been there because of my health, but they have beds and from what I hear, it's a very nice and clean place and much safer than where it used to be.

Did anyone have any questions?

Kayla

I have a quick question. What time did you have to get up to go to church every day? Because I know church is early and if you guys do two and a half hours—sorry not to make you relive that memory.

Ruth

So, on Sundays, Sunday schools would start at 9—from 9 till quarter to 10, then that's when morning service would start. Then from 10 till 1 or 2 would be morning service. Then you break from 2 to 4 and go to a brother or sister's home for dinner, so we didn't have to trek back home. Then we have dinner, then we'd go for a women's meeting. Depends on what Sunday, so it would be like we are going to be having a youth meeting again, or women's meeting again. So that would be a break until 6 o'clock. Then there would be evening service from 6 until 9. And now we are back on the train going. And then dad is preaching on the train with his perfect Queens English, and we're sitting down there petrified. “Dear Lord, help us.” So in the week, oh my gosh, it was this whole trekking thing on the train.

Almeta

To piggyback off of Kayla's question, what time did y'all have to get up to catch them three trains to go to church on Sunday morning so you could get here by 9 o'clock?

Ruth

Oh my gosh. Of course, we all shower, and everything had to be laid out. Everything was prepared and just heat up. And so we were up by like 5 o'clock. It was a whole living but I found family like that.

I was going to Washington Irving High School. It's an all girls school in New York City with 4, 000 girls, and my cousin was going. I spent the weekend with her in Queens. She had one of those big attic apartments up there. I go home and then these church people, and their names were the Rose’s, we'd never know these people, right? So then one day, “Oh, let's have dinner with you. Come over to our place and have, let's have dinner, right?” So I get there. I said, “Oh my gosh, I've been here before.” The baby carriage with the feathers. And then, “Upstairs there's this lady, Sandra, and she's my cousin.” “Oh my God. That's our cousin too.” “Oh yeah, our cousin's upstairs too.”

Kayla

Yeah, that's interesting. I remember when I had to go to Sunday school before my parents split up. It'd be the same thing. Sunday school at nine. Then, we were Catholics, we'd do mass. And then all Sunday.

Ruth

Oh, I didn't know, because I went to Catholic school, but they didn't do that.

Kayla

Well, 'cause I went to Catholic school and then before my parents split up, we would go to church altogether. So I had a lot of church as well.

Ruth

Again, that's the community. Wonderful, yeah.

Kayla

I was just interested 'cause we did not have to travel two and a half hours though. It was like a 10 minute drive.

Ruth

But it was about no one gets to heaven unless they go to the Jamaican Pentecostal Church. I'm like, “Oh no!” I'm thinking, Jamaica's like this—nobody's gonna be in heaven. It's gonna be barren. It's gonna be a big desert with nobody in there—well, you know, a tropical place. This can't be right. This can't be right. I'm learning so much on YouTube now. It's like, what?

Kate

Did you find a new religious community when you moved to Rochester?

Ruth

Yeah. I found several. I found the African American church and it was noisy to me. I didn't grow up like that, you know, when you're just not used to something?

Almeta

It was just not your cup of tea.

Ruth

I didn't know my ears were very sensitive. I didn't know drums, and the guitar, and the bass—back in the day in the clubs and the bass is so bassey that your heart is jumping out. This is the way in the church, oh gosh.

So then the next day, I end up at the Mormon—

Almeta

Yeah, they're everywhere. Like Johnny Cash.

Kate

How did you get there? Did you go with a friend?

Ruth

No, he knocked on my door. I was in a bad situation and it just so happened, he knocked on my door and the situation became better. It wasn't the community I was thinking it was. Oh my gosh, that was a learning curve right there.

I'm glad I have a book to write, put all that in a book.

And then I did a spiritual group. Then I went to another African American church, and the pastor—because I know all about this getting into the spirit and throwing yourself—so then the pastor goes up to me, she said, “Ruth, just lean into my hand.”

Almeta

Oh Lord. Oh Lord. She got you on that.

Ruth

She went and leaned into my hand and I'm like, oh crap. She just, “Okay, okay, you're on the floor now, just relax.” So I'm like, oh my God, now what? So then, everybody's all hallelujah and they're thrashing about and I'm like, oh my God, now what do I do? This is back in 2015. So I think I've had enough of the floor, right? So then, the pastor comes, I'm trying to get up, “No, no, baby, stay down, stay down.” Oh my God, that was the last time, I didn't want to be kissing the carpet. Oh my gosh, life is funny. You live and you learn and—Oh my gosh, my pain is gone because I'm laughing so much! I'm happy. I'll tell you a story any day. It's a natural painkiller.

Almeta

Well, stories are healing.

Ruth

Oh yeah, I'm writing that book. Because I'm by myself now, for years, I'm looking for this community to be in, because even though I was deemed disabled in 2004, I did hold two other jobs in between there. But I'm always looking to help people. It's my joy, helping others. I really got devastated with what's going on over the pond because now I'm here and I'm separated from family. Now I don't—it's like the whole Jamaican culture is gone. So I don't have that anymore.

So I said, I don't have that anymore, I'm just going to go to some Muslim place and learn the language and help raise the children here. So I didn't want to adopt, I wanted to—because I still have my nursing license, I said, since nobody wants me in America, I'll just go with them, learn the language, like early childhood alphabets, learning enough, and help them with medical care. Then Saturday comes and Almeta's there.That changed everything.

Kate

How did you two meet?

Ruth

We met at the Mercy Outreach Center at the health clinic, because now I'm not working and so we just met there.

Almeta

And I would go there because all services were at no charge. You get your eyes, your hearing, your teeth, medical doctor, chiropractic, massage therapy, acupuncture, Reiki, OBGYN, everything. Sisters of St. Joseph—yeah, it was the Sisters of St. Joseph, that was one of their outreach ministries. It was a wonderful place to be. Everybody was in the same boat. We were all at the lower end of the economic strata. Different races, cultures, colors, whatever. Male, female, children, LBGTQIA before there was such a thing. When you walked in, there was nobody scowling at you.

We're all sitting in the waiting room, waiting. And they knew you by name. And, “Oh, how you doing?” It was my kind of place. I loved it. We just started talking when, I believe I talked about the plants.

Ruth

Oh my goodness.

Almeta

And this is the plant lady. I still have the plant that she gave me back then. I've had it, what, almost over 20 years.

Ruth

In fact, I had so many plants I donated—

Almeta

She had a jungle in her house. Couldn't find Christmas. Her cat was Christmas 'cause he showed up on Christmas.

Ruth

So I donated like 20, 30 plants and they were huge. I don't even know where I had them in my apartment.

Almeta

Trees, trees. I'm like, what?

Ruth

So that was my, yeah—

Almeta

And you're a good person. I'm sorry that I dropped off the map, but again, we were both going through some really difficult surgeries. When they closed, I was so pissed off. It was political. It was a beautiful community organization that lived up to the name of community. It was an outreach center and no one was turned away. I mean, a couple times when somebody would be, either had a little bit too much, or the ones who were addicts, they would show up and we would take care of them.

Ruth

Good people.

Almeta

Good people. Good place. But there's another one that's open in the same building, it says it's an Outreach Center. Right in the same spot. And I think it's with some sort of religious connection according to the sign outside.

Anyone else have any other questions?

Kate

I have more questions, but I’ll leave space for the students.

Faith

You said you sent your kids back to New York City after you came here. What happened with them? You said you went back to New York City too, right? So you, reunited with them there?

Ruth

Yes. So I moved here in ‘89. They came up in ‘90. They got sent back by ‘92 because, like I said, relocating an adolescent, a pre-teen, it just wasn't—it's just, I didn't know. I was thinking, the drug situation in the projects were ridiculous. Stepping out and seeing a dead body in a plastic bag. It was in your face. But she didn't understand this. So when she came here, it was like, “Oh no, this is the sticks.” But she got home by 5 o'clock, I got home by 5:15, and by then somebody dared her to do something in her school uniform, I said, “Oh boy.” “I'm from New York City, I can do this!” Like, “Oh, no.” So yeah, they had to go.

Almeta

That was a good choice, that was a good choice.

Ruth

Yeah, cause, “I'm from New York City, I can do this,” and that neck going. It allowed me to go to school and fulfill what I needed to do. I went back in ‘98 and stayed for a year, and yes, I did move in with my parents. My dad was diabetic and mom would call me. The phone rang. “Oh, yeah, it's your mother.”

Almeta

My mother did that too. “Almeta, this is your mother.”

Ruth

“This is your mother.” So this is 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock, whatever o'clock. “Dad fell out the bed. What to do?” I'm in Rochester! “Wake Sophia up and have her help or call 911.” This is senior year, calling me. I said, “I can't take this.” I just whipped out of U of R School of Nursing, got a truck, packed it up and drove a truck to New York City. Never in my life did I drive a truck. I did it. I did it. I did a lot of nursing, I came in there and whipped them into shape.

But like I said, when I wasn't going to wait three years to be—when I was at Hunter, I took my first CRT class. That's how I found out, so I was born in in Manhattan, in Spanish Harlem, but I had to leave New York City to come to Rochester, to move back ten years later, to find out the whole history of Spanish Harlem. It was like an eye opener, “This is how this went down?” We had everyone, every ethnicity in the class. This is New York City. Oh, a sweet guy from Vietnam. Just wonderful students and classmates. There was one Caucasian girl in the group. People from Nepal. She said, “Oh my God, we're killing everybody.” She was, distraught. She said her family just killed everyone. And we're going, “No.” The whole classroom just hugged her. The whole class just enveloped her, said, “No, you didn't do this. So don't feel bad.” We didn't have the cell phones, but that would have been a good picture to take because, the whole 30 something of us, just hugged her and she was like the queen bee in the middle of us.

Almeta

Anyone else?

Katie

I have a question. So I know you said that you found a lot of connections with neighbors when you lived in Brighton Beach, through food and stuff like that. When you moved here, did you find similar connections?

Ruth

No, because when I came here I was looking for work. So I came here on a Sunday, Monday I was looking for a job. Tuesday I was working. I went to a temporary place, Kelly. I bugged them. I knew the job was ending on the Wednesday. I was calling them Tuesday. I said, “I need a job. I need a job.”

Almeta

Yeah. Kelly was the big temp agency. Any job just, it was just temporary. So it'd be a day, two days, a week, a month. If you are lucky.

Ruth

Right. So if they say, “Oh, we're gonna end on Friday,” I'm calling on Wednesday to find the job for Monday. I always I called them, I was doing the calling here.

To get the kids here, that happened. And it was a lot of stuff for the kids because she didn't want to be here. So when they were safe back there, that's when I said, let me start school. So basically, since I came here, I've been working, until ‘04.

So I tell people, don't do what Ruth did. I took my candle, not only did I burn it on both sides, I threw it in the fire and it went poof! Because I was working and going to school, so I had a full time job, a part time job, and I was in school full time. It was insane. Don't do that. Don't ever do that.

Almeta

You see them shaking their head, “Not me.” Not I said the cat, not I said the duck.

Ruth

I didn't know that community until my body broke down. Then that's when I started doing community work. The Mercy Outreach Center, the House of Mercy with the blood pressure clinic and pedicures. There was many times that I drove people to RGH and their blood pressure was through the roof. “Oh, no, you're coming with me. You're going, yeah. I still have my license. We're going. Come on.”

This is not over with. I know down the line I'll be having my hands on healing people again, but I'm going to concentrate on the book first. Get that out the way and then I'll be healed and I'll be back on track.

Kate

Can you tell us more about the book? What it's about? What made you want to write it?

Ruth

Like I said, the Jamaican, old school Jamaican family. There was certain things they did that, it's not until I read Uncle Tom's book.

Katie

Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Ruth

Yeah, I read that book like three, four years ago. And I threw the book down. It just sent me into trauma. I have the whole compilation of Mark Twain stories. There was things that my parents did, but they're old school, and I understood that. They didn't know better. There was another book in African American literature. Can't remember the name of this other book. And again, I was reading and I saw—and this is what was done to me. I had to close the book and walk out the class.

I had to learn. Because my parents didn't want me to go to high school. My mother went ‘til second grade. My dad went ‘til sixth grade. But his math was so good he was able to work at Citibank as a head teller. That was unheard of in the 50’s. Not only that, he had the perfect Queen's English, his suit was prim and proper, the cuff links, the tie clip. But they didn't—because I was the only girl, “Girls shouldn't go to school.”

But I was the lucky one since they sent my brothers and I to Catholic school. Went from pre-K to 8th grade. “Oh, that's all the education you need. You'll be a maid like me.” I said, “Oh, no. No, I'm not going to be a maid.”

I used to take a lot of art classes. And I had a hold of my mother's signature. I kept on practicing, practicing, practicing, practicing, and I forged my mother's name to go to high school. This was back in ‘74, because I wanted to become that nurse. Could you imagine if I just went to 8th grade?

Almeta

No. I can't imagine.

Ruth

When we went to Catholic school, in whichever grade I was like nine years old. You know, the carousel thing, that they show pictures on?

Kate

Slides?

Ruth

Yeah! So these nuns, because when I went to school they had the habit on, you know, the flying nun. And so they loaded up—God sister Elaine, she had to be 95—and then she loaded it up and it was people that were deceased from heroin overdose. We are in the classroom—

Almeta

Fourth grade?

Ruth

We were like nine years old and we were huddled. We were traumatized.

Almeta

They call it scared straight.

Ruth

Right. So now I'm 11 years old and my parents went to church, I had something to do. And I'm washing the dishes, there's nobody in this apartment. And I hear “Ruth.” This is the sweetest voice I've ever heard. It's like I've heard this voice before. It permeated at the same volume throughout the apartment. It was weird. “Ruth, Ruth.” I'm looking. So I said, “Okay, Ruth, just stay still. Okay.” It said, “Ruth, you have a choice. You can either be a drug addict prostitute or you can get your education.” That's a no-brainer. I'm getting my education! That's why I forged my mother's name because I heard—

Almeta

Heard the voice of spirit. I heard it. Saved my life.

Ruth

So I was actually demonized as a Satan worshiper because I went to school. I chose education. I had to do it. Who wants to be a drug addict prostitute?

Almeta

We're in your corner, we feel it. We got you. You're in a new community now.

Ruth

What is the LEAF? It's like, “I'm a little leaf, I'm a new leaf.” What is that?

Almeta

Someone gonna explain what a LEAF is?

Kayla

Wow, you're looking at me. It stands for Local Ethnographic Archiving Fellowship. There's three cohorts. Katie was in the first, me and Leka were in the second, and then the rest of them were in the third. And, we study race, placemaking, around Rochester, and spend the year and the summer making connections and writing down notes and stuff. But this year is the first time we're like getting stories from people through Ms Almeta.

Ruth

Nice.

Almeta

See, I know you wanted to know about LEAF because you the plant lady.

Kayla

We did do a lot of gardening last year.

Ruth

No, I knew it was something more than plants, but I was like, what does that mean? It sounds so sweet. It sounds so cute. That's amazing.

Katie

I want to hear more about your connection with plants. Like, where did that come from?

Ruth

That came from my mother. Because my dad, after the bank thing, he worked at New York Hospital. Whenever patients would leave the hospital, leave the plant, he'd take them home for mom to take care of. So that's how she ended up with all these plants. Then I got into it. And for science projects, I'd grow tomatoes or potatoes. We were on the ninth floor and I'm there growing potatoes for show and tell. “What you grew potatoes in the ninth floor?” So that's where that came, that was a good hobby.

Almeta

So it's a love and a calling.

Kate

And an inheritance.

Ruth, when you moved to Rochester, did you connect with the Jamaican community here at all?

Ruth

No, I came here and it was work. Work, work, work school. And I didn't stop until—then when I was working at Argent, I was into this 85 hour work week because I was supposed to go back to New York City.

Kate

Have you ever wanted to connect with the Jamaican community here?

Ruth

I did. But, I think—they’re off of Chili? In a church?

Almeta

Yeah. You're talking about, Genesee Street?

Ruth

The Jamaican?

Almeta

Yeah. It's on Brooks Avenue and Genesee Street.

Ruth

I went twice, and something happened, it—

Almeta

Just, you didn't fit.

Ruth

There was a big disconnect. Even though there was that church community and they were doing well. My mother was head of missionary and doing stuff like that. But, because my family—if they weren't in that Jamaican Pentecostal church, they were cut off. So I don't know my family, only my brothers.Because you have to be that Pentecostal.

Almeta

Yeah, well, that's how Pentecostal sects work. You're there, and you can't be anywhere else. And if you step up to open that line. Make up your mind, stay here, or get out. Yeah, it's very, um, uh, dictatorial.

Ruth

And, again, with the church, it was a community. We helped each other and all that stuff. If somebody needed clothes, or food, there wasn't food stamps, or there was, but they didn't believe in that. So, they'd help out. They took care of them. But then, we were the oddballs, because the children that were in the church, they were born in Jamaica. They migrated here. My brothers and I, we were the only ones that were born in America. So, when we went to church, we could interact with the grown ups but not the children, cause we were Yankees. Then when we got home, we couldn't play with Black kids because they were Black. So I did it my way. Yeah. So I'm a Satan worshiper.

But after all that, my granddaughter started college. So she's a second year and she's 18 years old. So I believe if I didn't make that jump, where would my kids be? Where would they be with me with the 8th grade education? I think, I did my duty, or part of it, there's still a lot for me to do, but I think I had to jump start my kids. Cause, somebody had to show the way.

Almeta

You inspired them. They will let you know, if they haven't already.

If there are no other questions, I want to thank you, Ruth. For making this trip twice. And sharing your story of what it means to be in a community, and in your case, many different communities. It's very varied and rich. And I mean that. I'm not blowing smoke up your butt. It's a rich life you've led.

Ruth

I'm seeing it now. Now, I'm seeing it.

Almeta

I'm in awe of what you've done. All that you've accomplished, considering the origin, and I've been in your life when your health was precarious.

Ruth

Oh, this has been awesome. Like I said, I feel so much better now and I laughed until I cried. That's so sweet.