Choices We Make

By Delisa Rankins

There is no available information at this time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 26, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450068345

Book preview

Copyright © 2010 by Delisa Rankins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

77005

CONTENTS

PREFACE

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

VIIII

X

XI

XII

EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dedication

In loving memory of my mother, Beatrice. In many ways, she inspired me to write this book. I know that in so many ways, a lot of her hopes and dreams were to be able to overcome her bad choices.

PREFACE

. . . Lillian knew I had issues and questions about my life, but she was afraid that if she told me the truth it would make her look weak and insecure.

Janelle Marie struggled her entire life trying very hard to make the right choice, but instead she continued to make choices that continued to cripple and destroy her life. Born in a dysfunctional family of deceit and lies, she had to struggle to lift herself up from the devastating secrets that clouded her life.

This is a true story, this is a brave story, and one of overcoming one’s past to become a whole person.

I

TIME: Sometime in mid-June 1953

Place: On the east side of Cleveland in a small apartment building housing several families

Lillian was a thirty-three-year-old female with four children, two failed marriages, and a job she hated. She had no real education, so she had to settle for being a housemaid for the rich families that lived in Shaker Heights.

She would rise up early every morning to get her children up and fed and ready for school, and then rush off to her job. Some days she would have two families to clean house for, and other days she would have three. On those long days, she would ride the rapid train home late, rushing to get home to her waiting family to prepare supper and help her children with their homework.

Lillian was a very attractive woman, and she took real good care of her body. She had a very kind, loving nature and was very sensitive to the needs of others, which is why people she became close to often took that to be her weakness.

Lillian married her first husband at an early age; he was her childhood sweetheart. They got married because she was pregnant with her first child. Her family was very upset with her, and they threw her out of the house. They lived with her husband’s family until he was able to get them a place of their own. Whenever her husband would leave her and the child alone with his mother, she would say mean and cruel things to hurt her. She told George about her behavior, but he said she just didn’t know how to deal with his mother. After sixteen months of endless complaining from his parents, George finally moved his little family into a one-room apartment because that was all he could afford at the time.

Lillian was very happy to be away from her mother-in-law’s house and did everything she could to make her small home as comfortable as possible. She truly loved George, her husband, and knew he loved her, but he was very unhappy