A Grandmothers Sacrifice

William Malik Kincheloe
9/11/11
Assignment: A Grandmothers Sacrifice Autobiography
ENG325: Intermediate Composition
A Grandmothers Sacrifice
My grandmother has always had a special bond with me her first grandchild. There are no words that can describe how the unselfish act of a grandmother has helped me get to the level in life where I am today.
When it comes to sacrifice nobody can relate to this action better than my grandmother Daisy. Daisy was a single child born in Gary, Indiana. Her father King Kincheloe was her inspiration in life and taught her about morals, family, and duty to self. Daisy lived the life of an army child moving from various countries to countries while enrolling in and out of different schools. After attending college in Indiana, Daisy settled down with an Army Sergeant named William Kincheloe. This would later become my name about 30 years later after the birth of my mother Kristal and Aunt Connie.
Kristal lived a wild childhood that consisted of partying, drugs, and no kids. She did not take school very serious and was the person who enjoyed trying anything once or for the first time. As a result of her actions my mother met my father due to a dare by one of her friends. At the age of 18, my mother gave birth to me (William), then two years later to Jamaal. Kristal soon moved to Texas after the birth of her third son Zachary which she then began abusing drugs. Daisy was living in Gary, Indiana, when she received a frantic phone call concerning her daughter and grandchildren. Prior to Daisy receiving this frantic call, she had already raised two daughters, paid her house off leaving no mortgage bill, car note, or random expenses. Daisy was on the path of retirement after working for Chanel 5 in Chicago Illinois as a daytime producer. Her duties required her to organize the on air talent with entertainment and interviews. Daisy was always a family orientated person and she soon after receiving the call stopped her life and moved to Texas. The call Daisy received informed her that her daughter was going to jail for drug possession and the children were going to a foster home.
Daisy soon after arrived in Texas and gained control of Kristal’s kids by adopting them and raising them as her own. Kristal did eventually get off drugs but by this time all of the kids were practically adults but they all accepted her without prejudice of her actions. Daisy stopped her life after she received that frantic call and began to raise the lives of several boys: a task she only had experience raising young girls to womanhood. After Daisy assumed two of the three boys from foster care, she then began on trying to attain the third child who was placed with a different adoptive parent. Daisy then moved her mother Christina Montgomery down from Chicago, Illinois to help with the stress of raising two boys while trying to pick up her life where she stopped in Gary, Indiana. The new addition of Mrs. Montgomery helped allow someone to always remain at home in order to help reinforce love and family with the family.
The first couple of years living with Daisy and Mrs. Montgomery were an adjustment due to the differences of beliefs. When grandparents are forced to help raise their children’s’ children then amount of years that passes in terms of curfew, demographics, personal constructs, and ideologies become problems. Older parents are stricter in terms of following the law, getting good grades in school, and setting rules such as come home before dark if you are 17 years of age. The positives of being raised by a grandparent and great-grandparent helped shape my morals, ethics, and personal constructs. The availability of a living legend helped shaped many papers that I was required to write in school. It was very nice to have a source other than the Internet to give concrete details about how certain events made them feel as well as others around them. Other positives were things such as thanksgiving style feasts for dinner, culture about family genealogy, lifelong lesson about how to treat a women, and about how to be a man. I do not know where I would be if I was not raised by my grandparents because my mother’s thought process could have never introduced me to certain concepts of life and manhood. It took a lot of gusto for my grandparents to love my brothers and me so much to invest their life in our life in order to break the cycle of men growing up by the penitentiary system. This is something I would not have found out my family if I was raised by my mother. As a result of the frantic call my grandmother received, my brothers and I were able to graduate high school and I later attended Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri on a full athletic scholarship. I attended school there for 5 years which I then received news about my grandmothers ailing health. I rushed home my last semester with 15 hours left in my degree plan in order to make sure I was available to my grandmother as she was available to me leaving her life in Gary Indiana and starting over in Dallas, Texas. The benefits of my grandmothers unselfish action has helped prolong our family legacy with the additions of my son Julian (3) and daughters Arianna (1), and Jayda (9).
My grandmother also has helped me become one of the first males in my family to go to college with hopes of graduating. There are no words that can describe how the unselfish act of a grandmother has helped me get to the level in life where I am today.