IN YOUR OWN WORDS Words from our vendors on their life and times, what they’re thinking and feelings, for their neighbors to know and share. RAELENE JOHNSON DENVER VOICE VENDOR Mother's Day MOTHER’S DAY is both good and bad for me. I want to wish all mothers a Happy Mother’s Day and hope that they have good relationships with their children! For me, being a mother is a blessing that I got to live through, but as our children grow up, they can sometimes turn against you or blame you for their lives going wrong. If you are a mother, and your children are adults, remember that you have to let them go. Sometimes, as a mother, you have to let your kids go when all they want to do is blame you, try to hurt you, or even call you names from the past. If you’ve completely transformed your life, you can’t go back and undo what happened. If you struggled with alcoholism or drug addiction, and you got clean and have remained clean for years, you cannot be held responsible for the broken person you were during that time. You have changed. And that has to be enough. I love myself today enough not to let my children hurt me any longer. I cannot allow my peace to continue to be around children who want nothing to do with me or call me up out of the blue just to harass me or anything like that. To let go, I give them over to God, who I have chosen to look over my children when I can’t be with them. I have to love people who love me. I can love them from a distance, but I don’t have to be hurt by them. So, Mother’s Day for me is good and bad. I have one child who is back in touch with me, and that makes me happy! Not having my mother all these years really hurts because she didn’t lived long enough to see my life change completely! I wish my mother was here. She’s been gone about 35 years now, after dying from breast cancer. I wish she was around, so I could talk to her. I know she is looking down from heaven, proud of me, but it’s still not the same! No parent is perfect, but we try our best with what we have, and sometimes that’s not enough for the children. If you are a parent having problems with your kids, I wish you the chance to let them know you love them, and I wish all mothers out there a much better Mother’s Day than I have had in the past. This year, I will be happy on Mother’s Day because I have two great-grandbabies who will be born between now and June. I already have 13 great-grandbabies, so these babies will increase that to 15! If I wasn’t a mother I wouldn’t be able to have all of the wonderful great-grandbabies and grandkids. (Shout out to my children who are mothers. I wish you all the best in your motherhood!) For those mothers who are alone, mothers who have lost their children to death, and mothers who are estranged from their children, I pray that you will get them back in your lives one day! Wishing all mothers the best day ever! Halvin Jones is Grateful HELLO WORLD, It’s me, Halvin. You might remember me from the story in last HALVIN JONES DENVER VOICE VENDOR July’s Issue, “Surviving Means Walking The Streets All Night.” A Lot has changed since then. I now have my own apartment. Amen. I’m going on 80 days sober. Amen. I’m an active grandparent in my grandchildren’s lives. I have Paramount drug and alcohol rehab to thank for that. Checking myself into the Paramount program is the best thing I have done in my whole life. I feel great, everything is clear, and my energy level is off the chart. So, special thanks to Paige, one of the recruits at Paramount. I would also like to thank Ashley of Elsewhere Beauty Salon for opening the door for me, which led me to start my own company, Elsewhere Cleaning Services. Long story short, Ashley gave me a donation when I was vending the newspaper and gave me a job opportunity to clean their windows and sidewalk. And it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse, so thank you, Ashley and Elsewhere Beauty Salon. Special shout-outs and thanks to Elisabeth, Giles, and Maddie at the Denver VOICE. You guys were supporting me during my time away and were there for me when I got back home. Last but not least, I’d like to thank the readers. None of this is possible without you guys. Thank you for donating and reading, pat yourselves on the back. None of these great things that happened would have been possible without your support. Thank you. 12 COLUMN
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