Forgotten Children: The Love of a Mother, as She Whispers, I Surrender

By Melissa Marie Faith and Carol Ann

The farmlands in Alabama 1947 the cotton fields were full of Black , White , and Latin woman picking cotton, dragging their babies on the cotton sacks, as they worked from sun up to sundown, and as their babies would cry out in hunger, one of the ladies would pick the child up and allow it to breast feed, if the child were theirs or not, times were hard and not much money , so everyone looked after each other as it should be even today, mom would always tell me, respect those that respect you, love those that show you love, and remember where you came from, as poverty knows no color, and always look up giving thanks to our Lord, with a song in your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728358390

Melissa Marie Faith

This being the fourth book that he has written, is a dedication to his mother, a loving caring, guiding light for him, and powerful woman ahead of her time with a beautiful brilliant mind, at 86 her health was failing and he was blessed enough to spend the remaining weeks with her, he would hand feed her in her last days, fighting back tears but she knew him well as she softly touched his hand asking that she not suffer any longer, his prayers were offered up for his mother, he leaves you with this, if your mother and father are here with you, show them all the love you have, because one day you will miss them dearly, and the love they shared with you, goes with them.

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2020 Melissa Marie Faith. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  04/03/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-5840-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-5839-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Elizabeth Margret Silagy St Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1928

Chapter 1 The Blessing To So Many

Chapter 2 Alabama Visit To The Farm, Mom Meets Stepdad

Chapter 3 Joy Riding In Detroit Summer Of 1961, And The Girls

Chapter 4 One Hell Of A Summer, Almost My Ruin

Chapter 5 Summer Fun Was Over This Year For Sure

Chapter 6 New Neighbor’s From The South

Chapter 7 Welcome To Boot Camp Marine, And Hello Viet Nam

Chapter 8 Devastating News For Mom

Chapter 9 Reminiscing About The Good Times In The Hood, The Charles Projects

Chapter 10 New Start With Carol, A Precious Woman

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Step back in time to 1947, a peaceful time in history, travel if you will into the cotton fields in Alabama, we had white, black, and Latin woman with small babies working the fields daily, people coming together helping each other just after world war two, mothers tending babies that were not their own but needed to be fed, regardless of ethnicity the children were breast fed by many different mothers, mom always told me this is the way life should be, she worked the cotton fields every summer from early July until end of August, grueling hot summers in Alabama for all that worked the fields, mothers would drag the babies on a cotton sack as they picked the cotton, I was told that these precious Ladies would sing many songs to help the day and hours of work pass, mostly gospel, southern gospel that is I’ll bet it was beautiful, mom said they would all start singing in perfect harmony from time to time, I suppose that’s where my love of song and rhythm comes from, by the end of the summer of 1949 mom had to leave Alabama and return home to her biological family, because her man wanted it that way, only come down to work the fields and visit with his family during the summer months, and this is where her story begins, I Love you mom, and thank you for all the good qualities you gave me, and now you can look down and see the Man I’ve become.

ELIZABETH MARGRET SILAGY

ST PATRICK’S DAY, MARCH 17, 1928

A very special dedication to my mother from all 5 son’s that she sacrificed everything to make us happy and well balanced in life, we were in the Marine Corps, guess you could say Mom had her own body guards United States Marines, how I would love to hold her just one more time, love you Mom.

When she passed, I heard from so few people, how sad because she was so very thoughtful and caring to so many family members and friends, the pathetic lack of humanity for her hurt me deeply, however I will forgive them as she would have wanted me to. Only a few cards that I took down as I packed up the photo album that she had made, memories of a life that’s been loved. Took the stuffed animals and her robes and things and packed them up, Stepdad always told me don’t you cry when your down, but mom there’s a tear every time that I blink, this has been the worst heartbroken time in my life, thought mom would have been with us until the end.

I’m in pieces but I know that a heart that’s broke is a heart that’s been loved, so I say you were an angel in the shape of my mom, every time I fell down you were there holding me up, so fly away home mom, it hurts so bad but I didn’t want you to suffer anymore. I hope I see the world as you did because I know a life with love is a life that’s been lived, when God takes you back he will whisper to you, you’re finally home, now you can see the man I’ve become from your new home, how much I love you Mom.

We lost mom and our uncle Albert on the same day December 17th 2015 I will never understand why or how this came about, on the same day?

Chapter 1

THE BLESSING TO SO MANY

A blessing of a day for the Irish and a wonderful day for Elizabeth Margret Saligy, my mother one wonderful and beautiful woman I might add, this was her birthday, and every year we the family would celebrate along with the Irish, which reminds me of the Irish washerwoman cut of music from Dublin, love the Irish, mom was born 1928 March 17 St Patrick’s day a very special day for all of us.

Mom was Hungarian with a smidge of Jewish blood along the line from my grandfather’s side according to her uncle Albert which made him my great uncle, Albert would have been 94 this year 2015 in February, Albert would always look after my mom and the family, he was the oldest of all of them and spent countless hours teaching everyone about history and dealings with growing up, a very special man in his own way.

Albert Balogh, born 1921 he was a surprise to his mother my great grandmother, a very wonderful person that would also help my mother and the 4 of us brothers later on in my mother’s life, great grandmother loved to watch us play as children it reminded her of her own boys growing up, what a sweet lady she was, I remember her passing at my age of ten, that was the first time I had ever seen anyone in a casket I admit I was scared.

Somehow mom and the family along with great grandmother, Albert and all had survived the great depression of 1929 to 1939 mom told us all about it, she was just turning ten at the end of the depression, she mentioned that my grandfather would help build bridges and roads in Detroit for 50 cents an hour just to feed his family, grandmother would work for a Jewish family doing laundry and housekeeping they were very good to my mother and her family, people helping people and God bless Israel and all Jewish and loving people.

40 % of all farms in Mississippi were on the bidding block because of this horrific time in America, economic historians usually attribute the start of the great depression to the sudden devastating collapse of the US stock market prices on October 29 1929 known as black Tuesday, some dispute this conclusion and see the stock crash as a symptom rather than a cause, of the great depression.

Some few short years after the depression Albert was called upon to render help to his country, the Army was in need of a few more men to fight the Germans in the name of peace and freedom for mankind. Albert was on his way to Germany by way of England, after some few short months of training and marching into France near the German border his platoon was captured in 1942 and was placed in a concentration camp that was slated for extermination by the Germans, fortunately it was discovered that he could cook and he was spared and placed in a work detail camp.

There were 23 men also to work the farm lands and tend the crops to feed prisoners and his group of men, this had taken its toll on him psychologically, he was beaten by German guards and abused along with the other 23 men, one of his friends stood up to one German guard and beat the shit out of the guard, the very next day his friend was shot in the head by the SS of Hitler, right in front of the men and they simply left him there for the rest of the men to deal with emotionally, the prisoner was finally removed and taken to Holocaust