Steve—he wanted me to have the babies. So I had my child. And then things started happening. It was a painful experience with him, it’s because he was abusive to me. And he felt that he can control me, being that I was doing drugs. But I knew that this was wrong, this whole relationship was wrong, but I went along with it because of the drugs. And basically, um—how you say. The system, ACS, started getting involved with us. Um, my daughter got tooken from me, I think she went to Good Shepherds then. Then, when I got pregnant again with Jamel, it was just the last straw, I had—I knew I had to leave him. So I gave my child again to his cousin, which is Carrie, she has him now. And I just left Steve. I knew I’d have had more kids if it was up to him. So I knew Jamel, it was the last—that was it.

By then I was living with Vincent, when I had Jamel. Steve had just came out of prison—again. And I called Carrie, Carrie came to the hospital and she took, um, Jamel for me. And she raised him. And that’s when I came to prison, you could say, like, five years after that? And I did my—my crime. And now I’m here today.

Vincent means a lot, yeah. Once a month he used to come see me, bring me a package. If I had a problem, he’d call up here [laughs]. If he don’t hear from me, cause he know I—even if I call him for 30 seconds, he know I’mma call him everyday. If I don’t call him throughout, say, about—in a week, or something? He’ll be calling up here. Actually, he helped me with other people that’s there, by sending them 20 dollars. He used to bring different people up to see me. Like, five, six different people. He brung ‘em up there to see me. 

He went into Carrie’s house, knocked on the door, and introduced himself, and let my son know he—you know, “You have another mother.” He started bringing my son up there to see me, once a month, twice a month sometimes. Vincent just sat in the corner and went to sleep while me and him—it was like, when I see him, he see me, it was like, automatic: we going to play. We took pictures. Vincent fell asleep in the chair, while—you know, we sat at another table so we could talk privately. Then we came back, we played a game—me and him and Vincent played, I think, Monopoly or something like that? And—yeah, it was fun! And then two weeks later he brung him back up here.

One time Jamel ran—left Carrie house, went to Vincent’s house, tell him he wanna move in. “You can’t just move in no man house, you don’t know him!” “I don’t care, that’s—.“ He started calling him Daddy at one time. Until Vincent tell him, “I’m not your Daddy, I’m your uncle.” Vincent—Vincent is the truth. [laughs]