A Contemporary Story

I’ve been working on an idea for a new book, tentatively entitled Childhood Stories. Everyone has memories that stand out from their early years, good ones, bad ones, or both; funny, heartbreaking, even incredible ones, all of which, for whatever reason, are retained for a lifetime. I’ve been amassing these stories – some are just a few lines long—for quite some time now, drawing them out of friends, family, and acquaintances. I always drop the question into my conversations: Is there a particularly memorable moment or experience from your childhood? So far, I have drafted about 30 or so stories for the book. Never one to miss the opportunity to add one more, I was at a dinner party the other night and chatted up the guest sitting next to me, eventually asking her for an anecdote. She said she had a story in mind, but it wasn’t her own, and it wasn’t a happy one. Her housekeeper had recently spoken with her about her daughter, who is in her first year of college, and how the forced deportations of noncitizens have affected their family. Though her daughter was born in the U.S., the housekeeper’s own citizenship status, and that of her husband, could be challenged now, when even people who have “done everything right” are being targeted. She explained that when the deportations started, she and her husband made the decision to move the family further away from the densely populated neighborhood they had lived in for years, as it had been the scene of ICE raids. There is no public transportation near their new home, so either she or her husband drives their daughter to and from campus each day. The new apartment is tiny and not an ideal place for her daughter to study, which means late hours at the campus library. She plans to be a nurse, so her workload is science-heavy. Between commuting and the demanding schedule and coursework, she said her daughter has been struggling. The constant worry about the ICE roundups was making the situation untenable. She has a full academic scholarship, but given these pressures, there is constant concern about her ability to maintain the grades necessary to keep it. The housekeeper had come to this woman, her employer, for help of some kind, because her daughter was talking about dropping out.

This story is meaningful as it offers a close-up view of the negative impact of certain political decisions. It is a contemporary story of a first-generation American, full of promise, but born to parents who are at risk of deportation under the current administration. The youngster has great potential, studying to become a productive citizen, while her parents clean houses to provide a secure home for themselves and their children. But the uncertainty is too much. My friend commented, “I am working with her to find ways to ease the pressure. I can only imagine the dread this young woman must feel, as she awaits one of her parents to show up at the end of each day for pick up, wondering if perhaps they have been picked up first, possibly never to be seen again.”