Jobette Is a Miracle

I've decided to try to post something everyday--a short piece, a poem, or a snippet from a book. This is my first offering. Yes, I welcome your prediction for the question at the bottom.

Jobette Is a Miracle

A True Story*#

Jobette's mother was not supposed to be able to have children, so when she was blessed with a baby girl, Maggie found her miracle at age forty-three.

Nine years younger than Maggie, Jobette's father was a loving man—unless he was drunk. Then, he became a demon. Booze changed Jesse into a violent abuser.

Maggie told people she ran into a door or fell down the stairs, any lie so no one would know Jesse hit her. Maggie's brother knew better, and he warned Jesse, "If my sister runs into another door, you're a dead man."

Jesse's drinking kept him out of work. The family often had no place to live and were homeless. When Jobette was nine months old and just taking her first steps, they lived under a bridge over a creek—in January.

Maggie stayed with Jesse no matter how many times he hit her, but on this winter night, things changed.

On the morning of her birth, Jesse had named his daughter, so they had the same initials. He loved Jobette when he was sober. On this night, Jesse found money for liquor and came home to the "camp" under the bridge, intoxicated. In that state, Jesse decided Jobette was not his child. First, he rationalized in an alcoholic haze, he would have had a boy, not a girl. Second, Jobette was a redhead. Both Jesse and Maggie had dark hair, but Jobette's maternal grandmother was a redhead. Upon his false epiphany that Jobette was not his child, he threw the toddler into the icy creek to drown.

Maggie couldn't swim, but she somehow rescued Jobette and walked away from Jesse that night.

Jobette's hardships didn't stop there. Maggie was diabetic and completely disabled. Therefore, Maggie drew a government check, and Jobette grew up poor. She received a welfare check, was covered by Medicaid and food stamps, ate free lunch at school. Her clothes were often altered hand-me-downs or purchased at Fred's Dollar Store.

Jobette's mom was a woman of faith and raised her daughter to have faith. Maggie only graduated high school, but she encouraged Jobette to strive for more.

Still, it seemed bad things kept happening to Jobbette. When she was thirteen, her best friend's stepfather molested her. She kept this secret for years, until he did it to someone else.

Jobette kept a lot buried, but she wrote about her feelings often. And! Jobette was smart. She never gave up. She realized the only way out of her poverty was her faith and education. She graduated high school at the top of her class and won a full scholarship to college.

Just when it appeared her life was on the way to perfect, more adversity came her way. Her mother died unexpectedly the summer after her first year of college. That could have ended her dream of being the first person in her family to get a college degree. Yet, she persevered and got that degree!

She married, had a family, divorced. One trial after other plagued her, but Jobette was a miracle…

What do you think Jobette is doing today?