Brenda Jane Robertson Saunders,
Age 53

I grew up in North Philly, around 18th and York. Great, old fashioned neighborhood. Your neighbors were different than they are now. When I was little, if you did something wrong at Cumberland Street, by the time you got home on York, the mothers on the block beat you. So by the time you get home, you don’t need no beating. Everybody was family. In our block it was 3 black families and the rest Caucasian. We all just got along. I loved growing up there. Our house was like the meeting house. We had a real big house. My mother had 7 children. My grandmother was living then and everybody on the block called her their grandmother. Our neighborhood was like a close-knit family. And that’s how our family is now, close knit.

I went to Simon Gratz, eleventh grade. I just lost interest. .I was in like a little gang and stuff. I’m paying for it now, not having my high school diploma. But I got along without it really good, as far as like career moves. I went to different business schools. A sponsor, a man by the name of J. J. Fellman took a lot of the girls from school that were doing bad and sent them to business schools. I went to Cedric Nursing School, to Trade and Institute, to PBX. Had some little jobs, some nice jobs. Perfect Photo Film handling money. I was about 18-19. I worked at London Harness and Cable. I worked at a clothing factory, like a couple of weeks when they needed people for a certain time of the year. I went to this fellow in North Philly. He had Brooks’ Meat Market. He taught me how to cut meats. I can cut up the whole cow. I can!

Around 20-21, I had my daughter. So I settled down a little bit. My daughter is 33. I have a 14-year-old son. My daughter got her masters, Psychology. She went to Howard. She went to Community College. My daughter lives in South Philly. She has her own house and her 2 children. I was always into my son and my daughter. My son is doing good in school. He goes to the same school I went to, Gillespie. I love talking about my family,

Somebody stole a gun out of my house. It was my friend’s. My boyfriend was in the hospital, in a home like, because he had had brain surgery. I went back to retrieve it from the person that stole it from my house. They called the cops on me. The girl said I said I was going to kill her with the gun and all this. It’s her word against mine and they caught the gun on me. Weapons offense, possession of a firearm. First time, a year probation and a year parole. I was in a program when I was on my house arrest and I made the biggest mistake of my life. I messed with some drugs. So they sent me here. I was 52. This was last year. I was a fool. That’s what I say every night. I made a mistake. And I’m paying for it. I hadn’t messed with no drugs, cocaine, in years and years. I just was depressed. My brother died. My brother and I was closer than close. My baby brother. I just got real depressed. I got so depressed that I just couldn’t handle hardly nothing. One night he comes to me and I can talk to him now. A lot of people don’t understand that, but you understand what I’m saying. Not the ghost or nothing like that. I’m going to be alright. Because I’ve got my children and my family. I’ll be fine.