The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 28, 2005, Page 9, Image 9
THF MTY
Wednesday, Sept. 28,2005 I _l I I A JlT J i ^ % Page 9
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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