Son, you are going to have to do better than this,” Beulah advised her eldest son. “You can’t continue running around with fast women and expect God to bless you for it,” she scolded as they walked through the airport toward the boarding gate.
“I’ll do better, Mama. I promise,” Leon replied as though on cue.
He hadn’t meant for this to happen, Anna Mae getting pregnant. He just wanted to have a good time. After all, he had just gotten a divorce and wasn’t looking to settle down again yet. Anna Mae was just a distraction he had allowed to go too far.
Beulah didn’t know if any of what she said sunk in to Leon’s brain. Leon had left home at eighteen and enlisted in the Army for three years. When he came home, he met his now ex-wife Leona, married her, had a daughter, and divorced within four years. Beulah didn’t know why they hadn’t gotten along. Leona was a good girl from a good family in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Her family was Christian. They all had good jobs. She was a nice light-skinned girl with good hair, just the type of girl Beulah wanted her sons to marry. And her younger son Richard was no better.
Every time she looked around, one girl or another claimed to be pregnant by Richard. He probably thought she didn’t know his real reason for leaving South Carolina. It was rumored that Richard had at least three babies on the way. He didn’t want to take responsibility for any of them.
My goodness, Beulah thought. What was wrong with her children? Especially her sons? Boarding the plane with her pretty little granddaughter in her arms, she thought about the life this child would lead. Instinctively, she knew Beverley would be a smart child—she could see it in her sleeping face.
She might darken up a bit, Beulah pondered. But she hoped Beverley would never be as dark as her mother. What was June-bug thinking? Messing around with that dark-skinned young woman? And with two children already!
Lord, have mercy on my children, she prayed silently. She and Otis had not raised their children to act this way. They knew the facts of life—be good or you will suffer. It was just as pure and simple as that.
As the plane took off, Beulah settled back in her seat with the still-sleeping baby. After leaving that nasty little apartment in Brooklyn, she and Leon went to Sears and Roebuck and purchased everything she needed to take care of the baby between New York and Georgia—a couple changes of clothes, diapers, blankets, bottles, and powdered milk. She was set and very glad she hadn’t taken anything from that young woman’s place. She didn’t need to take anything with her from New York except the child.
“Father, why have You decided to not permit Beverley to grow up with her biological mother?” the Son asked Almighty God. Watching the situation play out below Them on the Earth, He felt compassion for the woman Anna Mae.
“My Son, if We were to allow Beverley to grow up in New York with the rest of her siblings, she would not turn out the way We need for her to turn out,” Almighty God explained.
“I have ordained this one to be a mighty warrior for My Kingdom. She will go through many trials and tribulations on the Earth. These things are needed so she will be able to stand firm and do what I have called her to do.”
“Will she ever see her biological mother and siblings again?” Jesus wondered aloud.
“Yes, she will, My Son. However, it will be much later in her life. She will go to many places and do many things before she will meet them. At one point in her life, she will completely turn away from that side of her family. But she will turn back to them and bring salvation into their lives,” explained the Father.
As she slept in her grandmother’s arms, Almighty God and His Son continued to observe Beverley. Beulah Scott would learn to love and dislike this child before it was all over. But it would be this child who would be her salvation as well.