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BIOGRAPHY Factors such as poverty, alcohol and drug abuse contribute to the negligence in many families in the United States. As a youth, my family was a replica of such. As a child growing up in the inner city of Newark NJ, the trials and tribulations that my mother faced on a day to day basis were very foreign to me. I had no knowledge that drugs and alcohol attributed to the physical and verbal abuse that was done to us. My sister and I often prayed for someone to step into our home to help our mother gain self control and to nurture us. I often prayed that my father would step in. Later in my life, I learned that drugs stole his spirit as well. Finally, someone did step into our lives, DFYS- The Department of Family and Youth Services became my guardian in the year 1985. I was placed in various group and foster homes over a period of 7 years. While in foster care, I was informed that my mother was being treated for her illness and that she would have to enroll in parenting classes before we were placed together as a family again. I was really scared at that option, because I knew in my community the idea of such was non-existing. There were very few programs to embrace family unity. My worst fear came to past. She never followed up with any of the programs. My mother lost all parental rights of her children. My sister was adopted by my family and I remained in foster care. I was told by family members that due to my behavior, I was not allowed to live with them. I began to feel worthless, unloved and ashamed of my circumstance. Due to the lack of positive role models and mentors, I started to head down a road of failure but didn't get very far. I started to read several books about others who beat the odds. I also made a point of making friends who wanted more out of life than what was given to them. Although I was raised in several group homes, I had been blessed with many surrogate parents to teach the proper skills of life. I received my high school diploma and a grant to attend college to further my studies in nursing. Once I completed school, I aged out of foster care. I decided to move to North Carolina and begin my life as a young woman never to look back at my past. I never knew the death of my mother would be a full circle event. My mother's direct connection with her inner strengths seemed to dwindle. She felt swallowed whole. For years of knowing survival skills that were taught due to circumstances, she followed the only path that was familiar to her. She felt that "society had already labeled" her as a failure and as a neglectful mother. Through the perils of society, her days were filled with darkness and nights with despair. But it seems that she became tired of feeling sorry for herself, for her past, for her present. Sharon Y. Bell was on the path of beginning a brighter future. In the mid 1990s, Sharon enrolled in and graduated through several programs to gain more knowledge of the career that she chose earlier in her life. Nursing has been a passion of my mother's since she was a young girl. Her mother, my grandmother is a retired nurse of more than 50 years. My mother always had a heart and natural gift for helping the sick and the elderly, and that gift inspired me to become a nurse. On August of 2004, she enrolled at the New Community School of Newark, NJ to continue her dreams for her life. A life that she could be proud of and a life that could be celebrated. At that moment, she recaptured her self-worth. My mother's life was halted from that dream, the desire of living a purposeful driven life on August 31, 2004. In the beginning, the idea to honor and celebrate my mother's life manifested a life altering experience. On the day of receiving a packet from the mail that enclosed some of her school work, its contents enclosed completed essay assignments. It was this one fastidious assignment that she completed as it was synonymous on the focus of life skills. Immediately after comprehending it all, I fell apart. We shared the same goals for ourselves. The assignment was to list goals that you wish to achieve upon graduating. My mother listed the following: family, education, career, shelter and respect. --Tikisha Bell-Gowens Founder and President
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