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THF MTY Wednesday, Sept. 28,2005 I _l I I A JlT J i ^ % Page 9 ______:-* Somewhere to call Photo courtesy of KRT CAMPUS Kantisha Eaton, usually called Tish, begins unpacking in her dorm room at Sierra College. She enrolled in college in September after a difficult childhood. Childhood spent in poverty andfoster care, young womans determination, help from friends lead her to college Sara Steffens KRTCAMPUS ^ WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — From the moment she arrived in the world, weighing only 3 pounds, Kantisha Eaton seemed doomed to fail. Neglected as a child, she was taken by the state, then spent her teenage years cramming her belongings into plastic garbage bags as she shuttled between foster homes. In high school, she juggled three part-time jobs. No one in Kantisha’s family made it very far academically — most of her relatives dropped out after ninth or 10th grade, and several now live in cars, parked in Richmond, Calif.’s Iron Triangle neighborhood. All these things only made Kantisha want to succeed more. And against all odds, this month she became the one thing she has always wanted to be: a college student. Kantisha, known to most everyone as “Tish,” has only one picture of herself as a child, a battered copy of her second grade portrait. Her grandparents in Richmond raised her from almost the beginning, when it became clear her mother and father would not. Those were good years. But when she was 9, her grandfather died. Tish’s grandmother, Geneva, began to unravel, emotionally and financially. Everyone who knew her said she became a different person. Tish was often left home alone, terrified. She has flashbacks, still, of those years. “It took me a long time to be able to talk about it,” she said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed about. I was young. I didn’t understand a lot of things that were going on. I came a long ways to be where I am now.” Tish was often kept home from school to help care for her disabled older brother, who needed help eating and getting dressed. Newspapers covered the floor to catch the feces left by her grandmother’s many dogs. They kept a pot of boiling water on the stove, which Tish was supposed to use to protect herself if anyone came to the door. “I always felt as if I was an adult. I grew up fast, because I was doing adult stuff. It was very confusing. “My friends, we would go the park and they would say, 'Hey, get on the swing.’ And I would say, 'The swing? That’s for little kids.’” When she did make it to class, teachers pulled her aside with questions. Had anyone hurt her? Was everything OK at home? Afraid of getting in trouble, Tish kept her secrets. She wore a big blue Adidas coat every day, and slept in it too, because it kept her warm. One morning, during class, a cockroach crawled out of the coat. When the teacher pulled her aside, Tish thought she was in trouble. “I told her my grandma can’t afford to pay the people to get rid of them. I said maybe I could shake my coat out to get rid of them, or wash the coat,” Tish remembers. “I was scared to go back to that class.” It was a dark spiral: The more class she missed, the more Tish fell behind academically, the more ashamed she felt. “I was afraid to talk to people. I didn’t know if I could say anything right. My writing was bad. My math was really bad.” But even back then, Tish was determined. She would find neighbors to ask for help with her homework. Did they know anything about math? How to solve a problem? Tish was 14 when social workers finally saw the conditions in her home. Her brother was placed with a program for the disabled. An aunt in Fairfield, who had been concerned about Tish for years, agreed to take her in. In her home, she said, Tish would have just one person to take care of: herself. With that promise, everything began to change. Nationally, about one in 10 foster youths makes it to college. Only about one in 100 earn a degree. Tish entered the foster care system in Contra Costa County, a better spot than most for youths hoping for higher education. As many as one third of the county’s foster youths at least begin college classes somewhere, and donors shower them with thousands of dollars in scholarships. But even here, help is often too little, too late to reverse years of ORCHID • II Family’s lie alters man’s life, identity Jeff Kunerth f r KRT CAMPUS ORLANDO, Fla. — Every family has its secrets. There are things parents never tell children. There are lies that become family legend. There are stories that were never meant to be told. Judith Hartmann’s secret, when she married Bill Myers in 1959, was that she was pregnant by a black man. When the baby born to two white parents came out black, the secret became a lie. Throughout his childhood, David Myers was told that his skin color was ^ k a disease called melanism. He was lucky, his mother said, because the skin discoloration was all over his body, instead of just splotches of brown like most people had. So despite his dark skin, Myers grew up in white, middle-class neighborhoods in Ohio and New York believing he was white. “For many years I thought I was white. I thought like a white kid. There was a feeling in me that I didn’t want to be associated with blacks. I wanted the story to be true,” said Myers, a 45-year old Orlando tennis teacher. The secret shrouded in a lie lasted 26 years. Keeping it hidden all those years would turn Judy Myers into a hard, angry, unhappy woman, her family said. It made Dave Myers a defiant, rebellious, hostile child who would grow estranged from his parents, sisters and brother. Learning the truth would send Myers on a search for identity. And it would convince him that his story is the story of America — a white America that has been lied to, a black America oppressed and discriminated against, and a society unable or unwilling to discuss race. When Judy Hartmann told Bill Myers that she was pregnant, he believed the baby was his. And when the baby was born on Feb. 28, 1960 — five months after their marriage — he thought his son’s skin color was the result of jaundice. And then he thought there might have been a mix-up at the hospital. And when his wife told him the doctors said it was a skin disease that had turned their boy’s skin dark, he thought she was telling the truth. No questions asked. That is the kind of man Bill Myers is. He is soft and gentle and pliable, his LIE • 10 Photo courtesy of KMT CAMPUS David Myers’ mother told him his skin color was the result of a skin condition. Jessica Egan /THE GAMECOCK Students helped Minnie Dennard build her new home. WOMAN PRAISES HABITAT HELPERS Alexis Arnone THE MIX EDITOR From Sept. 10-15, USC’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity helped build Minnie Dennard a new home. The house was delivered to her lot on the night of Sept. 15, and the finishing touches will be put in during the next few days. WHAT 00 YOU DO FOR A LIVING, AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN COLUMBIA? “I work for Carolina Health Care as a caregiver, and I have lived here for about eight or nine years now.” ■ HOW WERE YOU INFORMED ABOUT HABITAT FOR HUMANITY? “Another homeowner, Cynthia Winn, told me about it and gave me the number to call.” WHAT WAS THE PROCESS FOR GETTING HABITAT FOR HUMANITY TO HELP YOU? “I called the number, and they sent me an application. I filled it out and sent it back, and they called to tell me they reviewed my application. They called again and told me I was accepted into the program. HOW DID IT FEEL WHEN YOU FOUND OUT YOU’D BEEN ACCEPTED AND THAT THERE WAS SOMEONE WILLING TO HELP YOU OUT? “Ecstatic. I was so proud and really excited. I didn’t know so many young people would be willing to help me.” WERE YOU ABLE TO MEET ANY OF THE STUDENTS WHO HELPED BUILD YOUR NEW HOUSE? “Oh yeah, I got to meet them all. I took a week off and I was there to help.” DID YOU GET TO HELP OUT AT ALL WITH THE BUILDING PROCESS? “You have to be on the site while they work. I was nailing and sawing.” f DID YOU GET TO GIVE ANY SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE HOUSE? “No, but I got a two-bedroom house. The three- and four bedroom houses are for people with families.” WHAT WAS YOUR OLD HOUSE LIKE? “Terrible. You wouldn’t want to see it. Some people (from Habitat) came out and talked to me while they looked at it. It was awful.” IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SAY TO THE MEMBERS OF HABITAT WHO HELPED WITH THIS PROJECT? “I want to thank everybody. The staff of USC, Caldwell Bank, all the kids. I can’t just pick one. To the Habitat staff, I appreciate everything they did for me. It truly was a blessing from God.” Interested in becoming a part of Habitat for Humanity? Send an e-mail to use — habitat@yahoo.com. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu _ _www. daily gamecock, com