From Perils to Pearls: A miracle in Brooklyn

By Mary Ann Robles

What power is great enough to overcome abusive parents who will do anything in their power to keep a child down? How can one turn from a childhood of tragedy to a life of triumph? Only God's power could save author Mary Ann Robles from her painful childhood as he performed a miracle in Brooklyn. After struggling to help raise seven younger siblings, God helped Mary Ann to transform her experiences From Perils to Pearls. A heartbreaking narrative of overcoming the harshest conditions, From Perils to Pearls proves a child coming from virtually nothing can grow to have the most important thing: God's grace. Author Mary Ann Robles is active in ministry through her church and working with women in the community, as well as having worked as a navy family ombudsman to help guide, inform, and encourage navy families while service men and women were deployed overseas. She has also served as a director for a coalition against domestic violence in Virginia and was instrumental through her work there to help establish the first domestic abuse shelter for women and their children. Mary Ann and her husband, Waldy, currently reside in Yulee, Florida, where they enjoy their four children and three granddaughters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645153313

Book preview

Chapter One

My real name is Mary Ann. My nickname was Gypsy or Sugar, depending on what part of the neighborhood I was hanging out in. In the north side I was Sugar, and in the south side I was Gypsy. I am a NuYorkMexaArican and grew up in Williamsburg, a diverse part of Brooklyn, New York.

For many years, I held many of these thoughts captive in my mind only as a memory. My first recollection of anything being wrong with our lives began when I was three years old. One day we were playing with our toys. The door suddenly flung open to our apartment and my father came rushing in. My brothers and I jumped up, startled by the door opening so abruptly. I could see by the expression on my father’s face that something was terribly wrong. My brothers Bobby and Joe and I kept playing with our toys, but we could see that my mother’s face changed as my father kept whispering, almost breathlessly, to her about something terrible but wouldn’t say what out loud.

My father seemed nervous as he kept talking about an accident that happened. He said something about a kid or a man that got hit by a car. I could hear him saying, We have to go, let’s go, sell everything, hurry, hurry, just sell everything. My mother’s face changed; she looked scared. Whatever he told her was bad because she was rushing around as if looking for something. She was calling the neighbors telling them to come to our apartment. She was saying to them that maybe they wanted to buy something for their house. I didn’t know what was happening but realized that we were going to go somewhere.

The toys we were enjoying a few minutes before were now being abruptly taken from us as some were sold or given away. There was confusion and people everywhere in our apartment as my parents kept selling, giving, and packing everything. I remember a red play phone that was special to me; I would play with it for hours, but it too got put in the boxes with the other toys and was sold or given away. This experience would mark the beginning of many loses for me—also the beginning of many secrets.

After a while, all the confusion stopped as the people left. My mother put us in the backseat of the car and off we went on a long, long drive. We went to a place called Fort Greene in Brooklyn, New York. Once there we moved from furnished room to furnished room. My parents had these friends that owned a restaurant, so we spent most of our days sitting around there. My mother didn’t know how to cook, so we always ate there too. They hung out so many hours there that they would have to warm up my little brother’s milk. During this time my family was made up of my parents, my three brothers, and me. My oldest brother, Bobby, was two years older than me, I was in the middle, my brother Joe was a year younger, and then the baby Willie was younger than Joe.

One day, as we were sitting in the restaurant, this man began telling my father about a party where they were going to have gambling. He asked my father if he wanted to go with him. My mother overheard the conversation and knew she was not going to be able to go because she had us kids with her. My father told her that if she could find a babysitter for us she could go with him, but otherwise she would not be able to go. My mother started asking everyone she knew if they could watch us for the night; everyone kept saying no to her. You could see that she was openly upset.

Finally, the lady behind the counter (who looked like a man) agreed to take care of us for my mother’s sake. The lady’s nickname was Negra she was the owner of the restaurant. I remember looking up at her from the other side of the counter with excitement that we were going to stay with her. She looked at me straight in the eyes, leaned over the counter, and said, I will watch the three boys. Then she pointed to me, waving her pointer finger, and said, But not her.

My mother got sad again. Because of me she could not go with my father. I remember looking up at the lady as she looked at me and said that I was bad news and that she didn’t want anything to do with me. I looked at my mother, but she didn’t respond. She just became sad that no one wanted to keep me for the night. I just looked at the lady trying to understand why she said that to my mother about me; all I could do was stare at her, then back at my mom. I wanted to know why the lady didn’t want me, but no answer came. My mom was just concerned about finding somebody to take care of me. I was confused at why the lady disliked me. We spent so much time there; I thought she liked me the way she liked my brothers. She never said anything like that to me before. I looked over at my mom again, but she was not even concerned. She was just asking everybody she knew if they could watch me.

An old man that would sit with my parents every day said, Don’t worry, I will take care of her. My mother looked his way and got happy again. I remember her and my father looking at each other; it was an unspoken agreement between them that it was okay again. I was a little girl; I didn’t understand or want to go with this stranger. I didn’t want to be away from my brothers. I was always with them, never by myself. I quickly felt alone and became scared to be alone with this old man. I could feel my stomach tighten; I quickly looked around to see where Bobby was. My mother told the old man to bring me back early in the morning. My mother didn’t hug or kiss me goodbye; I was just gone out the door with this person. I had never been without my brothers. I remember crying inside, my little thoughts racing, wondering where he was taking me. Wherever it was, I hoped there would be a lady there waiting.

I got a knot in my stomach as this old man took my little hand into his big sweaty one and we walked into the cold night. I had long, light­brown hair; I wore a pretty dress with can-cans, ruffled slips that most girls wore, white ankle socks, and black shiny shoes. I felt the cold air against my little legs as I kept walking alongside this old man. I remember wishing somebody would help me. I wanted somebody to come and rescue me from this man. No matter what thoughts I had racing in my head about someone helping me, I slowly realized nobody was coming. I was on my own with this stranger whose hand was sweaty in the cold of night. I felt like we had walked for a long time as we finally reached a big house. I saw the huge doors at the top of the stairs and I was hoping that there would be a nice lady on the other side of the doors. I climbed to the top of the stairs with him, and as he pulled the doors open the musky smell from inside flew out onto my face. There were two more doors he had to open before he finally opened the door to his house.

As we walked into the house there was a very small room with a small bed in the corner of the room. I remember just looking at this bed when he broke my thoughts with, Come on, climb in the bed, it’s time to sleep. I told him that I had to go to the bathroom, which was a few feet away from the bed.

When I came out he was sitting on the little bed in a T-shirt. He said, Come on, you have to go to sleep. I climbed up onto the bed and slid to the wall, trying to find something to hold on to. There was nothing but a cold white wall. I pushed myself against the wall almost trying to go through it every time I felt this man’s body near me. I was just there in this place with a man who began to take off my underwear. I was so fearful, but nobody was going to help me; my mother had sent me there with this man. I remember my body getting rigid as he pulled my underwear down very slowly, telling me that it was okay. Then he began to touch me over and over again. I was scared but knew that nobody was coming to help me. I could hear him breathing heavily. He was smelly as he kept saying that it was okay. I don’t remember anything else. I don’t know if I fell asleep or fainted, I just knew that soon it was morning and we were walking back to the restaurant. I couldn’t wait to see my brothers. I wanted to see my mother so I could tell her what happened. As we walked I remember wondering how I would tell her. It seemed forever getting there.

As we walked into the restaurant, I could hear my brothers laughing. As I got closer, I could see them sitting down in a booth eating. I stared at my mother. She simply looked at me and said, Sit down. As I slid in the booth, I felt the seat on my bottom because I had no underwear on. I looked at my mother, thinking how I could tell her what happened to me. I kept watching her. She finally said, What is it? I replied that I had to go to the bathroom. She got up to take me. When we got to the bathroom I just stood there as my mother went into a stall. She told me go to the bathroom, so I walked to the stall next to hers.

From the other bathroom she said, Put your panties down and go.

I said, I can’t.

She said, You can, just pull them down.

Again I said, I can’t.

At this point, she was now standing in front of me, trying to read my face. She said in a louder voice, Pull down your panties!

I said, I don’t have any on. Suddenly she raised my dress and felt my skin. Without saying anything to me, she ran out to the restaurant where the man was and proceeded to beat the man up. She dragged him out into the street. My father and the people were confused as to what was happening.

My mother started yelling so loud everyone could hear what he did to me. I remember running, watching my mother push the man onto the hood of a white car; a lot of people watched. I don’t know when all the commotion stopped or what happened to my mother or my brothers. Someone called the police, and the next thing I remember was sitting on my father’s lap in the police car. I didn’t understand where we were going or why I was sitting on my father’s lap. I looked at the policeman’s face and could see he was saying something caring to me because of his facial expression, but to this day I don’t know what it was. It was almost as if I were in a dome. Everything became quiet, as if I couldn’t hear anything. I just stared. The rest was blank. Whenever it was that I woke up again, we were living in another apartment.

Chapter Two

There were so many people coming to our house, and it was mostly men. These men were dressed in suits, some wore hats, and most all of them were smoking cigars or cigarettes. My mother was selling beer to them, and there was a table in the middle of the room where these men were playing cards. My father had a large bowl on the table collecting money for the house. He kept reminding them not to forget el banco (the bank). There was a lot of commotion, cursing, laughing, and loud talking. The living room kitchen was so packed with people that it was hot and smelly from all the cigarettes that were being smoked. My mother was busy running around getting them drinks and food, and she was laughing a lot with them.

My mother made us stay in a bedroom a few feet from the room they were in. She told us to keep quiet and to stay in the room. My brother Bobby told me they were gambling; he kept sneaking out coming back with sandwiches from one of the tables. My brother Joe would cry because he wanted to get out of the room, but Bobby wouldn’t let him. He said that he was going to get in trouble. Eventually Joe fell asleep from the exhaustion of trying to overpower Bobby. We would all fall asleep after a while of running back and forth to the door to see why the men were yelling. It seemed like they were yelling loud from joy every time they won money.

My big brother was tan; he had an olive complexion, his eyes where almond shaped and black in color, and he had long black eye lashes. Joe and I made Bobby into our little father without realizing it. We knew he would not hurt us; he was always taking care of us.

We all woke up when we heard loud voices and a lot of commotion. We could hear a fight going on in the other room; everybody was running and yelling. When my brother went to the door to sneak a peek to see what was going on, I ran next to him so I could also see. I had to catch my breath because it was the police. Somebody had called the police and told them what was going on in our house. Some of the men looked like they were running out to the back yard; they were frantically trying to get outside to the yard. We kept looking from inside of the room. We could see that my father was trying to get away from the policeman. He was turning red as he cursed loudly.

The policeman finally had my father by the neck. My father was six feet tall and was a large, strong man. He had such big hands that people would say he had frankfurter fingers. We could hear him saying to the policeman, I don’t know where my wife went. Her kids are in that room. She was here before you came in. We couldn’t see her anywhere. We ran back to the bed and covered ourselves with the sheets because the policemen were coming into the room. We got scared, so we huddled together. We could hear the policemen’s voices; they were mad, so we thought they were mad at us, but the police were mad that little kids were in the next room while all the gambling was going on in the house.

They ushered us into the living room with my father. My father was still cursing; he wanted my mother to be there with us. After a while, we could hear my mom laughing as the police walked her into the room where we were. They were laughing because she had jumped the fence with some of the men. When my father saw her, he looked disgusted for some reason. He proceeded to yell at her in front of everybody, almost as if he blamed her for the police coming to the house. He acted like it was our fault he got caught gambling in our house. My mother just looked at us; I don’t remember her comforting us at all.

The police took my mother and father with some of the men to the police car that was waiting for them outside of our house. We had no relatives other than my parents, so Bobby, Joe, and I got placed in a foster home. I don’t know where the baby went.

Bobby, Joe, and I were being put in a foster home with this nice lady and her two kids—a girl and a boy. We thought the house was beautiful. One of the things that stood out about the house was a huge blue room. It was so big and it had a lot of pretty things in the room. I remember two women took us to this lady’s house. They both stayed talking for a long time with the lady of the house. The foster mother’s children seemed to like us at first; they were smiling at us and welcoming us into their house.

The lady’s son made me feel apprehensive because he kept staring at my older brother. He looked upset every time he looked Bobby’s way. To me it was a familiar look; every time someone didn’t like my brother they gave him the same look. After the ladies left, things changed quickly. The lady wasn’t smiling anymore. I don’t know how long we were there, but I do know that the lady’s son was unbearable. He hated my brother. I think it was because my big brother was darker that he picked on him all the time. He would complain about him to his mother every chance he got, so she was always irritated with my brother.

While preparing us to take pictures, this lady cut my pretty, long, light-brown hair. She made it look like I had a bowl on my head. So did my brothers. She said she was preparing us for pictures so it had to be done so we could look nice. Our heads all looked the same except for the color. This picture was oval and had the three of us standing side by side. Our eyes looked sad in the picture; they were sullen eyes. This one day, the lady was yelling again but there was something different about her yelling, for us this day she was furious. She called out loudly for Bobby. He looked at Joe and me, and all three of us went running to the big blue room where she was waiting for us with her son. The foster mother made us scared. She stood there looking so mean. We didn’t know what she wanted or what we did, we just knew it was a bad thing again. She looked at Bobby and said that her cat was dead and that she knew Bobby had killed it. The lady wanted to know if Bobby did it. She kept asking him, Did you kill my cat?

My brother kept saying, No, I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it. But it was as if she couldn’t hear him. Me and Joe were just crying, not knowing what to do. We just stood there crying while she kept yelling close to Bobby’s face.

This went on for a long time. The longer it went on, the angrier the lady got. We knew something was wrong. The lady left the room and came back with a plate, and the dead cat was on it. She said if Bobby didn’t tell her the truth, he would have to eat the cat. My big brother was saying over and over again, I didn’t do it.

He finally said, Your son did it!

She still didn’t calm down; she seemed to get angrier, she said, My son would never do that, how dare you accuse my son. Her son stood there and also denied it; I was very scared of this lady. I remember wishing that she would be nice again like when we first met her.

The cat was disgusting, and my poor brother was exhausted from the repetitious questions. He stopped crying on the outside but I know he must have been crying on the inside. His face was red and wet from sweating. I don’t recall how long this woman kept us sitting there; I know I had stopped crying and we fell asleep right where we were sitting.

I don’t know how long we stayed in the foster home. I don’t remember if I thought of going home or of my mother. We seemed to always be too busy getting in trouble with the lady to think of anything else. I do remember that one day a white-haired man came with my mother to get us. I remember the first thing we told her was that the lady tried to make my brother eat a cat. I don’t know who the man was, but I did know that he was a gentle person who spoke quietly and he liked my brother Bobby. He liked all of us but he was especially nice to my big brother. It felt quiet and nice every time this man was around. When I asked my mother who this man was, she said he helped her get us from the foster home and also got us the apartment we lived in. The apartment had an upstairs and I remember that it had a gate so my brothers Willie and Joe wouldn’t fall down the stairs. I had a good feeling here. We also had toys and nice clothes. My mother seemed happy too; she was always nice now.

One day, two ladies came to visit my mother. I could see that my mother was nervous. They were whispering to her that if she didn’t leave the man alone they were going to report her and have her arrested. They told her that we would be taken from her again. I could see my mother was scared, but the man just sat quietly, looking at me as if he was going to miss me. I didn’t see the man any more after that, not that I can remember. Whatever it was they told my mother, her life was about to change again. The man stopped coming around. My mother started acting like she used to when my father was living with us. She was moving fast again, acting like she