National Adult Literacy Database

December 10, 2001

This week, we are launching 6 stories from the Adult Learning Centre in Courtenay, BC . As a special event you can read their stories as well as hear them.

The following story was written by Christina Parsons. She grew up in Courtenay, one of 3 kids. Christina is 23 years old and has 2 boys, ages 5 and 2. Their names are Moses and Bruce. Christina has returned to school. She's taking an Adult Basic Education course in English and works with a tutor at the Learning Centre. She hopes to be an Early Childhood Educator.

 

Play an audio version of this story

Impatient Moses

by Christina Parsons

I was eighteen and had a three month premature baby. My baby's name was Moses, and he had to stay in an incubator for three months.

After getting out of the hospital, he stayed in foster care for a month. I was too young to look after a special needs baby at that time.

After leaving the foster home he was in and out of hospital for a year because he was still sick, and because the living conditions weren't too good at the time, due to pets and smoke. For the first year of Moses' life I was scared because he had health problems and I was still only young. Most nights Moses would wake up choking and it would worry me.

One day Jody, my fiancee, was cutting wood and accidentally hit me in the head. While I was tending to that, Moses had vomited in his crib and was choking on it. Moses' grandma picked him up and made sure he was all right. I went to the hospital and got stitches.

A couple of months after the accident, Moses and I moved out of grandma's house. We moved into our own apartment.

Moses got healthier after we moved out because we weren't in a stressful environment anymore, and there was no more smoke or pets. He never had to go to the hospital again. I was amazed how quickly he recovered. To this day he is healthy and strong with no medical problems.