![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/03-minor.jpg\")
<\/a>Once\u00a0my late husband David and I made it clear to Jim (and the \u201cgoverning\u201d counsel) that we were willing to \u201ctake in\u201d children needing temporary homes, we were never surprised when we were approached about the possibility of taking in a child. We\u00a0never\u00a0received\u00a0nor\u00a0were\u00a0paid one penny for room or board or\u00a0love for her (or any of the 11 children that we cared for). We\u00a0did what we did because of\u00a0our\u00a0choice and our commitment to help rear her.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t recall many of the details \u2013 I don\u2019t remember for certain if Cassandra\u00a0Minor\u2019s aunt who had been rearing her was on her mother\u2019s or father\u2019s side \u2013 but I do remember that Cassandra\u00a0was 15 and had been in her aunt\u2019s care for about four years.\u00a0As the child\u00a0became a teenager, she\u00a0had become uncooperative and verbally combative,\u00a0and the aunt,\u00a0who then had\u00a0a very sick husband to care for, needed\u00a0and wanted to be relieved of the\u00a0daily responsibility for\u00a0Cassandra.\u00a0The aunt lived in Bayview,\u00a0and was friends with\u00a0\u2013 and often came to services with \u2013\u00a0Nettie Schneider, both of whom were\u00a0what I considered \u201colder\u201d women. They were\u00a0maybe in their fifties.<\/p>\n
We met\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0following a Wednesday night service.\u00a0 Carrying\u00a0her few belongings with her,\u00a0she moved in\u00a0with us that night. At first, she was quiet and withdrawn, doing what she was told or asked without any feedback.<\/p>\n
And then it happened on one occasion,\u00a0when\u00a0she was\u00a0asked to do something minor or routine, she just\u00a0exploded.\u00a0I asked\u00a0her\u00a0why she was so angry. She\u00a0said\u00a0that none of her family wanted her,\u00a0no one\u00a0else\u00a0wanted her around,\u00a0and that it seemed\u00a0like\u00a0David and I\u00a0did\u00a0not want her either. I saw an opening\u00a0and\u00a0asked her how she had come to live with her aunt and not her mother.\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0told me that her\u00a0father frequently fought her\u00a0mom and \u201cbeat her up,\u201d\u00a0until\u00a0he just finally killed her. That\u2019s why she had to go to live with her aunt.<\/p>\n
I put my arms around her and asked her how she had\u00a0come to\u00a0know\u00a0that her\u00a0father had killed her\u00a0mother.\u00a0Weeping heavily and profusely,\u00a0she told me that she had seen him do it.\u00a0Her parents were fighting\u00a0one night,\u00a0and\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0had tried to get between them,\u00a0but\u00a0then her mother had fallen into a glass coffee table and sustained fatal trauma to her head. Cassandra\u00a0\u2013 still\u00a0in the middle of things\u00a0\u2013 caught\u00a0a flying piece of glass in her right eye.<\/p>\n
Everyone in the Temple could see that Cassandra had a glass eye, but this was the first time she had told anyone the reason for it.\u00a0I\u00a0decided\u00a0that it was absolutely amazing that she was not living in a constant state of rage. I learned to feel a new level of compassion for my newest child. After that,\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0and I were undoubtedly much closer,\u00a0and she\u00a0even\u00a0began to call me \u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sewed and made clothing for her and she liked that very much. I made her several pairs of gaucho\u00a0pants for the PT bus tour\u00a0from California to New York. It was the tour where we\u00a0visited\u00a0the Father Divine Ministries\u00a0in\u00a0Philly. That was also the trip of the\u00a0\u201clook out the bus window and see if you can\u201d drive-by of Niagara Falls,\u00a0even as\u00a0people were getting dehydrated from the scarcity of drinking water on\u00a0the buses.\u00a0That was weird, to look\u00a0upon\u00a0Niagara Falls\u00a0while you were thirsty. I\u00a0was watching\u00a0Jim and pondering my options\u00a0for departure\u00a0even\u00a0then, but regretfully,\u00a0I was\u00a0unwilling to confront him about the suffering of the people. On\u00a0my<\/em>\u00a0bus, I made sure that we\u00a0did\u00a0have water,\u00a0and\u00a0at every stop, I would sneak to get water in old bottles or jars or whatever\u00a0I could find\u00a0for the thirsty\u00a0passengers.<\/p>\n Cassandra\u00a0was a\u00a0great help to me in the house with all\u00a0the laundry folding and dishwashing. Since she was the eldest daughter\u00a0at that time, I worked with her on issues of grooming and hygiene and hair care,\u00a0and\u00a0I worked with her on her school work and pushed her hard, with her non-verbal\u00a0acquiescence, toward a vocational\u00a0education. I saw that she had the potential for success. She also liked it very much when she could show David her homework and he would review the work that I had helped her with and YES, sometimes find mistakes. David was excellent in helping the children with their schoolwork.<\/p>\n But it was not all sunshine and light. I remember the day, soon after David and I had adopted an infant, when\u00a0I asked\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0to sweep the floor, and she just stormed and threatened to run away and go back to her aunt\u2019s house.<\/p>\n Well,\u00a0me\u00a0being me, I challenged her and invited her to go ahead, but, as I made sure to\u00a0remind\u00a0her,\u00a0that\u2019s where\u00a0she had been before she got to me.\u00a0They would just send her back to me, I pointed out,\u00a0so she should\u00a0just save herself all the heartache and trouble and just sweep the floor.<\/p>\n But she would not be dissuaded from her course of rampant hostility.\u00a0With the broom still in her hand, she ran outside, which in itself was a\u00a0good\u00a0thing,\u00a0because she was then out of sight and earshot of the younger children. I followed her outside. Actually really fearful that she was about to run, I said:\u00a0\u201cYoung lady, you are down to just a few choices here.\u00a0You can either sweep the floor with that broom,\u00a0or<\/em> Cassandra, you can just tell me what\u2019s wrong and then we can try to make it right. Because I will help you make it right,\u201d\u00a0I promised.\u00a0In a\u00a0begrudging tone,\u00a0she replied that she would sweep the floor. I walked\u00a0inside and\u00a0thank God<\/em>, she followed.<\/p>\n After sweeping the floor,\u00a0she\u00a0approached me\u00a0and asked \u2013\u00a0in a more than typically confrontational tone \u2013 \u201cMom, why don\u2019t you\u00a0ever ask\u00a0me<\/em>\u00a0if I want to hold the baby?\u201d I\u00a0knew\u00a0then\u00a0that that was why she wouldn\u2019t sweep the floor.\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0afraid and I tried to be tactful,\u00a0but I was\u00a0also\u00a0blunt\u00a0when I said, \u201cWell,\u00a0you know\u00a0Cassandra, we are\u00a0all so\u00a0sorry that you lost your eye while you were trying to save your\u00a0mother,\u00a0and no one would ever blame\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0for having a glass eye, but\u00a0Cassandra, you just refuse to keep your eye and your eye socket clean,\u00a0and sometimes it get so infected that it just drips. I\u00a0know\u00a0you well enough to know that you do not want that poison infection to drip on the baby, so that\u2019s the\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0reason that I do not offer her to you.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t recall her immediate response very well \u2013\u00a0in my mind\u2019s eye, I see a stunned young woman \u2013 but\u00a0I\u00a0do know this:\u00a0I never again saw that little drip in the inner corner of her eye and I also\u00a0know\u00a0that her eye wash and eye cup were being used because I checked, and they were wet\u00a0and\u00a0had to be replenished.<\/p>\n Within a couple of days I was hollering, \u201cCassandra,\u00a0can you get the baby and bring her to me?\u201d\u00a0We just always smiled at each other when she handed the baby to me.<\/p>\n Cassandra\u00a0was such a very\u00a0sweet\u00a0girl,\u00a0very appreciative, very willing to grow and to learn,\u00a0very manageable,\u00a0very compliant,\u00a0very open and very honest. I loved her\u00a0so<\/em>\u00a0much.<\/p>\n Some file photos will verify this fact.\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0work hard and graduated\u00a0from\u00a0high\u00a0school in San Francisco, and was a Vocational Nurse or Nursing Assistant. She was meticulous about her uniforms.\u00a0I washed them separately from the other clothes, and she ironed them and hung them on her bedroom door for the following school day.<\/p>\n About a week after her graduation, which her aunt and other\u00a0members of her biological family proudly attended,\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0told me\u00a0that she felt badly that her aunt had done so much for her while she was young,\u00a0and\u00a0she had shown no\u00a0appreciation or gratitude.\u00a0Since her aunt\u2019s husband was so ill,\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0thought it would be a good idea to go there, just across town in San Francisco, to help her aunt out as a little repayment for her gratitude. I agreed that\u00a0that was\u00a0a wonderful idea and that,\u00a0yes, I could and would manage without her help at home,\u00a0but that I did want her to start looking for a job very soon.\u00a0As we packed on her last day with us, we said that\u00a0we would see each other at church.<\/p>\n When\u00a0I didn\u2019t see her at church, I called her aunt\u00a0\u2013repeatedly, as it turned out \u2013 who just as\u00a0repeatedly\u00a0said\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0was\u00a0not\u00a0there. I asked church counselors to\u00a0let\u00a0me\u00a0know\u00a0of her whereabouts.\u00a0After\u00a0two weeks, I realized that I was being left out of the loop. Finally her aunt told me that the church had told her that\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0\u201chad run off with some boy.\u201d\u00a0That was it? To my barrage of questions,\u00a0I got\u00a0nothing<\/em>\u00a0in return\u00a0but vague answers from\u00a0everyone.\u00a0I was devastated and\u00a0pissed off!<\/p>\n In the meantime, as I became more and more focused on my own survival, I\u00a0gradually\u00a0let it go in terms of searching\u00a0and questioning. But I\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0truly\u00a0let it go, in my heart.<\/p>\n It was\u00a0years later….\u00a0after\u00a0David and I had gone to the\u00a0twenty-fifth\u00a0reunion,\u00a0when I finally found a way to bring together both at the same, time my will and my courage to even look\u00a0\u2013 really, just to sneak a peek \u2013\u00a0that I actually\u00a0saw with my own eyes, that\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0Minor\u00a0was\u00a0in fact listed among the dead of Guyana. What a\u00a0shock<\/em>! I should have suspected, but I hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n I saw it on the computer\u00a0screen, but not in real life.\u00a0I was so hurt for her. I was angry and felt the treachery of betrayal, all over again!\u00a0In Guyana,\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0had become a mother to a lovely baby girl.\u00a0How,<\/em>\u00a0I asked myself, could this\u00a0have happened without me ever knowing that she had been sent to Guyana.\u00a0Not one person<\/em>\u00a0ever told me that\u00a0Cassandra\u00a0was being sent to Guyana! I\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0got to say a loving \u201cGood-Bye!\u201d\u00a0I wondered\u00a0how\u00a0could\u00a0my\u00a0self-claimed child become a mother,\u00a0and\u00a0both<\/em>\u00a0she and her baby\u00a0get poisoned to death,\u00a0and I did not even\u00a0know<\/em>\u00a0she was over there?<\/p>\n Next, I blamed myself and asked myself all of the \u201cWhy didn’t I?\u201d\u00a0questions. I knew no\u00a0amount of anger or rage or self recrimination could\u00a0ever\u00a0bring her back to me, but\u00a0I still wonder:\u00a0How in\u00a0hell<\/em>\u00a0did this\u00a0really good\u00a0girl end up\u00a0there and dead? I will never truly know.<\/p>\n (Janet Shular is a regular writer for<\/em>\u00a0the jonestown report. <\/em>Her other articles in this edition are<\/em> For the Love of Danny<\/a> and <\/em>Clifford Gieg: In the Rear View Mirror of My Mind\u2019s Eye<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Her complete collection of writings for this site can be found<\/em>\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once\u00a0my late husband David and I made it clear to Jim (and the \u201cgoverning\u201d counsel) that we were willing to \u201ctake in\u201d children needing temporary homes, we were never surprised when we were approached about the possibility of taking in a child. We\u00a0never\u00a0received\u00a0nor\u00a0were\u00a0paid one penny for room or board or\u00a0love for her (or any of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":81147,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-81168","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81168"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82740,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81168\/revisions\/82740"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}