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“Mommy, Please Stay Home with Me” I came home from a tour one time to discover that my husband Tommy hadn’t set foot in the house since I’d been gone.Aunt Maggie was still taking care of my kids. She told me she knewTommy had a serious girlfriend staked out somewhere. I didn’t want to believe it. I still thought he would be happy to see me. But he didn’t come home until almost daylight.He gave me a little hug and I could smell the liquor on his breath. “Hon,I’m so proud of you,”he said.“I know y’all are going great guns now,and I was wondering if I could borrow a little money from you.Hon,we’re gonna make a killing on that cemetery development I’m working on, but I need to put in the curbs and gutter.” When I was leaving a few days later, he came out to the airport where J.E.,Bonnie,and I were waiting to board our charter.I thought he had come to say goodbye.“Maxine, hon,” he said,“I need three thousand dollars by tomorrow morning. I need it in the worst way. I know you’ve got lots of money.” I guess I was so embarrassed to see him begging for money that I wrote him a check. He had been hitting me up all along and taking just about all that I made singing.As we were getting on the plane, J. E. said to me,“It’s stupid to give him money.You know what he’ll spend it on,don’t you?”I couldn’t answer, forTommy’s behavior that day was nothing new. He was draining me in more ways than one. I took off in the plane,unaware thatAunt Maggie was trying desperately to get ahold of me.Little Jimmy had pulled over the coffeepot and had scalded himself all over his body.I didn’t learn the whole truth until I came home again. It seems that Tommy had gone back to the house after leaving me at the airport and had walked in just after the 189 18 accident had happened.Aunt Maggie told me later that she begged and pleaded with Tommy to hurry up and rush Jimmy to the hospital .Aunt Maggie couldn’t drive a car, and, besides that, she was in a panic. But Tommy, being the self-centered father that he was, had to pretty himself up before going out in public. He let our baby suffer while he took a bath, shaved, and pampered himself.All the while, Jimmy was crying and Aunt Maggie was pleading for him to hurry.It almost killed me when I got home and saw Jimmy.He was so burned all over his body that he couldn’t stand to wear a diaper. This time,I’d had it.I was so furious and guilt-ridden that I could have jumped into a boiling vat myself.After I calmed down,I decided to take the kids and leave Tommy for good. First, though, I had to know the real truth, so I hired a private detective to follow Tommy. It didn’t take him half a day to find out that Tommy had his own apartment. It was located above a paint store on Seventh Street, near the State Capitol where he worked.He was living with his own little tramp, and I was the one paying for his love nest. I made myself go to a lawyer and begin divorce proceedings.When Tommy found out about it, he came crawling to me, begging, and promising to straighten himself up. But it was no use. I could never erase from my mind all the mean things he had done to the kids and me.In all these years,he’d come near me only during his drunken fits or when he wanted money.What passed for lovemaking was about as warm as soured wine. By divorcing Tommy, I thought I would never have to worry about him again. I knew I would never trust him. For the first time since we were married, I began feeling something akin to peace of mind.And then I got sick and sicker. I felt those stirrings inside my body that could mean only one thing:I was pregnant again.Oh,Lord, oh Lord.I had two babies already,a career that demanded all my...

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