Split

By Bonny Dail

Split is a story of purity and faithfulness. Split is about a young virgin, born to parents who did not want her, as she was put up for adoption before her birth, but for some reason, her mother decided to keep her. This young virgin loved God to the point that she did not want to disappoint him and chose to be faithful unto him. Her faithfulness to him included staying a virgin until she got married and then being faithful to her husband. During her childhood, she spent part of her growing up in the projects of Chicago, where she witnessed very little faithfulness or purity around her, even in her household. No matter where she lived as a child, people in her age group considered her a reject. Since most of her young life, she had no friends in her own age group, this drew her closer to God. At the tender age of nine years old, she accepts Christ into her life and gets baptized. After she is baptized, a woman at the church where she was baptized, befriends her, and later asks her if she would marry her son. At nine years old, she agrees to marry the woman's son, whom she has never met. The woman tells her that she will train her to be the wife of her son and that they will get married when she turns twenty-one years old. She tells the child that she will bring her son to church on the following Sunday. From then on, every other Sunday, the young virgin would go to the woman's house for training, until she was grown. During those years of training, the young man she was to marry kept trying to get her to have sex with him and even tried to take it by force. She, on the other hand, let him know that she has chosen to be a virgin bride. In her twentieth year, with only one year to go before their wedding, things go all wrong because of him. Twenty-one more years will pass before they are united in marriage. During those extended twenty-one years, they never lost love for each other, in spite of what happens in their separate lives. The young virgin becomes a virgin bride, but not as expected. Over the years, she strides to live a pure and faithful life unto God, through her first love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644585856

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Split

Bonny Dail

Copyright © 2019 by Bonny Dail

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

My Roots

Family History

The Entrance of Mother and The Loss of Grandmother

Mother and Father

My Entrance

The Loss of Grandfather

And Then I Was Two

Three and Four

The First Move

The Trip Downtown

Time to Start Kindergarten

Kindergarten

Additional Moves and Elementary School

My Dilemma

Back to the Old House and Elementary School Graduation

The Next Move and CVS High School

First Real Employment

The Courtship

Marriage

Starting a Family

Give thanks to the God of heaven.

His love endures forever.

— Psalms 136:26, NIV

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

— John 8:32, KJV

Preface

The story of a young woman who is faithful to her first love, even through the relationships of being faithful to two lovers. This is a true story of real events and real people.

Persons and those who are still alive, but I do not have their approval to use their names, are mentioned but their names are not revealed.

About the Writing of the Story of Split

I started writing this story in early 2000, while I was still working on my job.

During that period of time, I had very little work and a lot of time on my hands. To occupy my time, while I did not have any work to keep me busy, I started typing this story on my computer that was on my desk at work. We were not supposed to use company equipment or supplies for our personal use. Although, I did not consider this to be all that personal, as I believed that someday, many other people would read this story.

My supervisor and her boss, who was the branch chief, kept a tight eye on all of us employees. They read stuff we put into our computers. Even so, I continued to write the story to keep from being bored and falling asleep at my desk. I had to do something to keep me busy. There just wasn’t enough work to keep me busy. No matter what they gave me to do, I just ripped right through it without errors. While everyone else was making mistakes, I was the only one who had a perfect computer record from Washington, DC, the main headquarters.

I know that my bosses had been in my computer and were reading what I was writing to keep myself busy. I wondered why they never said anything to me about what I was writing when I didn’t have any work.

During that period of time, the bosses were getting rid of employees for any little reason, as our branch was overstaffed. As time passed, I was the only one that they had not gotten rid of in my unit. When I started working in my unit, it was fully staffed. Now, I was the only one in my unit doing a full staff’s job.

So before my bosses could get rid of me, I turned in my forms for retirement. They did not realize that those forms that I gave them to sign every two weeks for payroll were to legally pay off every penny I owed the government.

You see, the year before, I had a serious accident that caused me to have to be off from work for six months. Since I didn’t have enough sick leave and annual leave together, I had to borrow leave from the government in order to get paid so that I could pay my bills, since I was the sole support for my family.

When you owe the government money, the government wants you to pay it back all at once. In other words, they would take your whole paychecks every pay period until you have paid off all your debt to them. BUT! I had a dream that showed me how to pay the government off all that I owed, a little at a time every pay period so that I would have money to pay my bills.

I had all my debt to the government paid off two pay periods before I was scheduled to retire, with extra hours over that the government would have to pay me for when I retired.

When my bosses read my retirement request papers, they were shocked, as to how could I afford to retire. All I know is that I had a dream where I was told to retire and so I submitted my retirement papers. It wasn’t until the final pay period that my bosses noticed on the payroll print-outs that I had paid off the government in full with hours to spare.

On the day I retired, my bosses had arranged and paid for by themselves a retirement party in my honor. They even had collected money to give me as a gift and presented me with a $100 check.

Now back to my story where I was writing on my company computer, which I knew my bosses were reading.

Before I retired and left the building, my bosses said that they wanted a copy of my book after it was finished and published.

I don’t know about the published part, but I have finished the book now in 2018, but I don’t remember my bosses’ names; I don’t even know if they are still alive.

Oh well! I guess that’s life.

My Roots

Well, it began a long time ago before I was born. There was a small group of people in Africa called a Watusi tribe. Here a young girl with a proud African name was taken captive. Her and many of her people were taken from their homeland and put into the bellies of ships headed for a new world called America. Sadly, though, many of her people died long before they ever reached the new world. Only a small portion of her people survived the transfer. Many of the survivors were sick and weak by the time they arrived at the shores of America.

This young girl, still alive, arrived in America and was sold as a slave, stripped of her proud African heritage and given an American name. She began a new path. Too young, frail, and weak, her master chose to raise her as a house slave. She was thin and quite tall for her age. Of course, she was a Watusi. Watusi men and women were known for being very tall, handsome, and distinguished-looking. They were warriors. Here, she was reduced from a child with a future to a slave and house servant.

Because of Elizabeth’s tender age, which her master and mistress had to estimate, Elizabeth learned quickly and was never any trouble. She was a sweet and obedient child.

Time went by and Abraham Lincoln became president. During his reign, Lincoln made a proclamation to free the slaves.

Many of the slaves left their masters and plantations with nowhere to really go. Many joined the military. Many went north to start new lives as free men and women. Some settled on a plot of land provided by the government with which they were provided a beast of burden. Here they were to build their homes and farming was to become a way of life and support. But still there were many previous slaves who never left the south, the plantations or their old masters or mistresses.

Still too young to be on her own, she was one of those who stayed behind. Her master and mistress thought it best for her to stay with them. They would finish raising her. Not as a slave but as a child taken in out of the cold.

Family History

On August 15, 1890, my grandmother was born to parents of slave ancestry. Her name was Elizabeth Ann Cecilia Joans (Anderson).

And so it was. Elizabeth stayed with her parents until she was grown. When she left, she did not leave alone. A man named William Henry asked Elizabeth for her hand in marriage. She accepted. They were married in a small town in Biloxi, Mississippi.

On March 5, 1864, my grandfather was born and named William Henry Anderson.

William Henry was much older than Elizabeth was, but that didn’t matter to her. He seemed to be caring and quite religious. He promised Elizabeth that he would always take good care of her and would always love her. He was not a lazy man. He worked hard to provide for her needs. They didn’t have a lot, but what they had they had together. He never left her alone for long except when he had to go find work. Since he was a laborer, there was much work to be found. But it seemed like free labor for the kind of wages they were being paid.

Both William Henry and Elizabeth had strong religious beliefs and that was the way they raised their children. William Henry was very strict with their children. He didn’t tolerate any foolishness. That is, until they had a son. William Henry and Elizabeth stayed in a small house in Biloxi. There, Elizabeth gave birth to four children. After many years went by, Elizabeth and family moved north. They settled in Illinois in a small town called Robbins. There they lived in a small house with their four children. As time went by, Elizabeth and William Henry had four more children. Two of the children born in Robbins were twins. These twins died at birth. After they had the twins, a few years later, Elizabeth had a large swelling in her abdomen, which the doctors thought was a tumor.

The doctors told Elizabeth that she was going to have to have an operation to remove the tumor. Back in those days, negroes did not go to hospitals for medical help. All medical procedures were performed on the kitchen table or on the floor. Elizabeth used the kitchen table to have her surgery. When the doctors performed the surgery, instead of removing a tumor, they delivered a baby boy. This boy is my one and only living uncle on my mother’s side of the family. They named him Phillip. Instead of sorrow, Elizabeth’s sorry was turned into joy. Out of all her living children, this was her one and only living son. Although quite small, he turned out to be quite a man. He was Elizabeth’s last child.

William Henry and Elizabeth spoiled their son. After all, he was the only boy. Being waited on hand and foot by his parents and his five sisters. Talk about living the life of royalty, he did. He was allowed a freedom his sisters were not allowed to have. But in spite of all that, he turned out to be a good person. While growing up, Phillip held many jobs as a young boy and through early manhood until his steady employment with the federal government.

As a young man, he enlisted in the military. He was very close to one of his cousins. Phillip and cousin Milton were very close, as they grew up together. Both Phillip and Milton went into the military. Phillip went into the army and Milton went into the navy. He didn’t have strong religious faith like his sisters or parents. That might have been because things in his life went his way most of the time. Both at home and out in the world, Phillip had it pretty good. He was treated like a king at home and received almost the same treatment out in the world. What he had was a lot of worldly possessions while living the good life. A good life that was almost cut short by cancer. But Phillip overcame his cancer and lived the good life in California. That’s right! California. The city of the stars, the wealthy, of dreams and worldly possessions, and doing quite well. And why not! It almost seems expected.

Phillip lived several decades with his cancer until he died of diabetes, a decade or so after the new millennium. He was the last of his siblings to die.

The Entrance of Mother and The Loss of Grandmother

One of the children Elizabeth gave birth to during her stay in Robbins, Illinois, was my mother. They named her Edural Anna. She was the youngest of five girls. She was a very sweet child, only to grow up to become a woman of sorrows.

As a child, Edural Anna seemed to feel like she was living in the shadow of the sister next to her in age. The sister she competed with was named Norita. Edural Anna and Norita looked almost like twins. They were very close in age. They were the two youngest girls. Whereas Norita seemed to drift through life, life seemed to be very hard and lonely for Edural Anna. She felt that her father, William Henry, loved Norita more than he loved her. These feelings made Edural Anna feel sad and lonely most of the time throughout her childhood. She carried these feelings throughout her lifetime until she died.

To Edural Anna, it seemed like Norita was getting all the love, Phillip was getting all the wealth and that the rest of her sisters got a lot more than she could ever obtain. She neglected to see all the blessings in her life. She spent too much time worrying about what everyone else had. In spite of her feelings, Edural Anna was loved by her mother and father, as well as by her siblings. When Edural Anna was only fourteen years old, her mother, Elizabeth, died. Elizabeth was only forty eight years old when she died of cancer.

During the lifetime of their marriage, William Henry never abandoned his beloved Elizabeth or their children. He loved her ’til the day she died. He grieved her loss and lost sight of some of his responsibility. That is, his responsibility toward his children. I don’t mean he left them or anything. No! He continued to provide for their needs. He just couldn’t finish raising them without Elizabeth. It was just too much of a burden for only one person. He needed someone to help him. He needed support from other family members.

Edural Anna went on to grow up. But William Henry was not the one who finished raising her or the other children. The two oldest children, Arvilla and Alistine, finished the raising of their sisters and brother.

Mother and Father

When Edural Anna finished high school, she wanted to go to college. Arvilla, who was more of mother than a sister to her, told her that women didn’t need to go to college because they would get married and become housewives. Housewives, she said, don’t need a college education, they just need to know how to take care of the home, their husband, how to cook, and raise children. She thought sending a girl to college was a waste of time and money. But on the other hand, she sent her brother through college. This made Edural Anna very angry because she wanted to get an education so that she could get a good job and support herself. She never really recovered from this dispute for the rest of her life. She continued to stay with Arvilla and Alistine until she turned eighteen.

Edural Anna went into the military after she turned eighteen. There, in the military, is where she met my father. He was tall, handsome, and quite romantic. But he had one very big problem, which my mother didn’t find out about until after she married him. He was a mama’s boy. Even though he was also raised by a big sister, he was still a mama’s boy. He didn’t know how to stand on his own two feet. He always wanted to be dependent on somebody else and my mama wasn’t going for that.

While in the military, Edural Anna experienced a lot of hatred from both southern and northern whites. Other coloreds seemed to be jealous of her. She seemed to stand out above the crowd. She believed in being strait forward and honest. She spoke her mind. Sometimes a little too much. She believed in striving for the best. She didn’t bow to anyone. She didn’t believe in stepping down from any position. She held her ground. Being the strong willed person that she was, she never gave in to anyone. Especially not to a non-military white person. She stood up to them like she was the boss. They didn’t like that. They wanted her to surrender to them like most southern coloreds of the day. She wouldn’t have any of that! Nor would she allow them to treat her that way.

One day, while still in the military, while stationed in a southern state, she got on a public bus. She sat down on one of the front seats of the bus. The bus got crowded. Although there were a lot of colored people on the bus, Edural Anna was the only colored sitting up front. The bus stopped and a few whites got on the bus. They prepositioned her to give up her seat to the whites and to move to the back of the bus. Well! It wasn’t going to happen! She wasn’t about to give up her seat to anyone, especially a white person. After all, the bus was crowded and she would have to stand all the way to where she was going. So they could just forget it! ’Cause she wasn’t about to move! The whites started to insist. But they forgot something! She was in uniform, and it was against the law of the land to hassle military personnel on duty. You see! She was still on duty, in uniform, and she represented the United States Army, even though she was using public transportation. So therefore, they could do nothing about her position. They had to leave her alone and let her get on her way. Any more insistence from them would have meant their going to jail. They knew it and didn’t want that to happen. They called her a nigger and a lot of other names, but they could do nothing else about making her move. She stood her ground and they hated that.

All the while this was going on, none of the other coloreds already on the bus never said a word out loud or came to her defense. They were afraid of what would happen to them. But when some of them got off the bus the same time she did, they had a whole lot to say. None of which was in her favor. They thought she was out of her mind and would cause trouble for them with the whites. She just shook her head and told them that they shouldn’t let whites run their lives. She told them that they were free people and that they needed to start acting like they were free. You see! Free people should display strength and hold to what’s right. They should not give in to weakness and denial. They should step forward and let it be known that they have just as much rights to go about their lives just like everyone else.

After she left the bus and their presence, she could hear them talking from a distance. She heard them say, you know, she’s got a point.

She had the courage to express herself and let people know where she stands. She had the courage to say what she would or would not tolerate. So while she was in the military, non-military whites could do nothing about her attitude. This made her feel good. But she didn’t understand why other coloreds did not stand up for themselves.