Yesterday, I Cried_ Celebrating the Lessons of Living and Loving - Iyanla Vanzant [62]
Rhonda had to get up at 5:30 in the morning. She’d dress herself, dress the baby, walk five blocks to the subway station, and board the train for a forty-five minute ride with Damon on her hip. She worked from 7:00 A.M. until 7:00 P.M. taking care of other people’s children, and then she’d take the train back home. She’d leave Damon with Nett and take a thirty-minute bus ride to night school. By the time classes were over at 10:00 P.M., Rhonda was exhausted. She’d return home by 11:00, eat dinner, do her housework, wash diapers, and do her homework. If she was lucky, Nett would stay up and help her so she could get to bed by 1:00 A.M. If she wasn’t so lucky, she’d get to bed at 2:00, sleep for a few hours, and then be back up at 5:30 A.M. to do it all over again.
Rhonda was a teenage unwed mother. Her weekends did not include parties or dates or hanging out with her girlfriends and shooting the breeze. She spent part of the weekend washing clothes, shopping, and caring for Damon. The other part of the weekend was spent studying at the library, or reading at home so she didn’t fall behind in her schoolwork. Rarely did Rhonda indulge in any luxuries, but occasionally she would squeeze a few dollars out of her paycheck and go to the hairdresser. Her life was difficult, but Rhonda did what she had to do. Nett wouldn’t let her not do it.
Damon had just turned a year old when Beanie introduced Rhonda to Curtis. He was the cousin of Beanie’s boyfriend. His real cousin. Curtis was handsome, very shy, and on his way to Vietnam. Rhonda thought he was nice enough, and meeting him was the closest thing she’d had to a date in a long time. Nett took one look at him and decided he was a nut. He was looking for someone to correspond with while he was overseas, and as if she didn’t have enough to do, Rhonda agreed to keep in touch.
He wrote. She wrote. They had been writing back and forth for about a year before Curtis asked Rhonda to marry him. She was flattered, but after Curtis proposed to her, Rhonda stopped writing altogether. He continued to write for a while, but then the letters stopped. Then one beautiful Sunday afternoon, Rhonda was at home reading, and Nett was playing with fifteen-month-old Damon, who was now walking and talking, when the doorbell rang. Nett said it was probably Daddy, who no longer had a key to Nett’s apartment. She had taken it from him the day she discovered he had five children by another woman. Rhonda went to answer the door. A neighbor who was going out had let Curtis in. When Rhonda got downstairs, he was standing there with a bouquet of roses, wearing a big grin on his face.
Somewhere between dinner and the good-night kiss, Curtis presented Rhonda with an engagement ring. She was stunned. Nett sucked her teeth and stomped out of the room. Yes, Curtis had said, he was very serious about marrying Rhonda. He was ready to settle down. He loved her and was very fond of Damon. He’d always wanted a son. Rhonda said she was sure she could put together the wedding in two months’ time, before Curtis was assigned his next tour of duty. Rhonda was so excited. She started making lists of places, food, and, of course, guests. Curtis immediately called his mother, who had a reaction similar to Nett’s. She was not at all pleased that her only child wanted to marry a girl that he hardly knew.
Had Rhonda been paying attention, she would have understood what Nett kept telling her: “He must be some kind of nut!” But Rhonda couldn’t see it. She was too busy looking at the fact that a man wanted to marry her. He was willing to take care of her and her child. He was prepared to take