Bent but Not Broken: God Kept Me

By Corine Smith Ford

My parents sharecropped for many years and owned a corner grocery store where my father bootlegged alcohol for a living. As a child, my brothers would plow many acres of land. They would start at sunup and work until sundown. Most of the time, after plowing the land, they would have to plant the crops. Back then, the crops consisted mostly of cotton. Us girls had to help chop and pick cotton and strawberries. Every year we were kept out of school to work in the fields until all the crops were gathered, and then we would go off to school wearing hand-me-downs. Momma had that look of helplessness again every year when we would hear the owner say to my father either, "You are in the red," or "We just broke even."

One thing was for sure: we always had a really good Christmas dinner. We would have a big, fat homegrown roasting hen with cornbread stuffing, homegrown collard greens, okra, and homemade pies. One of Momma's favorites was the lemon pie. We really didn't know we were poor because we never went hungry.

In my teens, I was attacked by a young man and feared for my life. After that attack, I started looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. These experiences left me Bent but Not Broken. God kept me.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885400091

Book preview

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Bent but Not Broken

God Kept Me

Corine Smith Ford

ISBN 979-8-88540-008-4 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-009-1 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Corine Smith Ford

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

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

11/12/2007 6/17/09–8/26/2021

Forgiveness

About the Author

11/12/2007 6/17/09–8/26/2021

Born in the Deep South of Kosciusko, Mississippi (population: seven thousand), and raised as a sharecropper's daughter, I am number eight of ten children. My parents sharecropped for many years and owned a corner grocery store where my father bootlegged alcohol for a living. As children, my brothers would plow many acres of land. They would start at sun up and work until sundown. Most of the time after plowing the land, they would have to plant the crops. Back then, the crops consisted mostly of cotton. Us girls had to help chop and pick cotton and strawberries. I remember every year, we were kept out of school to work in the fields until all the crops were gathered, and then we would go off to school wearing hand-me-downs. Momma had that look of helplessness again every year when we would hear the owner say to my father either, You are in the red, or We just broke even.

We didn't know what it meant to have toys of our own for Christmastime and our birthdays. There were six boys and four girls. During Christmas, we would get a brown bag with one apple, one orange, one or two large sticks of peppermint candy, and some nuts. Sometimes, we were blessed to receive a doll to share among all of the girls, and the boys might have been lucky to share a toy.

One thing was for sure—we always had a really good Christmas dinner. We would have a big, fat homegrown roasting hen with cornbread stuffing, homegrown collard greens, okra, and homemade pies. One of Momma's favorites was the lemon pie. We really didn't know we were poor because we never went hungry. Generally, Momma always seemed to find something delicious to make for the family. On top of her cooking for us, my momma worked as a cook and housekeeper for some of the white families from time to time.

I remember one day this woman