Damekio Gardner was the girl who had it all: designer clothes, lavish jewelry, fancy cars, and a few streetwise hustlers to provide it all. After dating Miles for a while, her life became a continuous, vicious cycle, dating one thug after another, all of whom wanted to live their lives in the fast lane. Her life was consumed by street drama, destruction, and tragedy. For many years, Damekio struggled against constant animosity, the slandering of her name by jealous women, and constant battles with her lovers. She was beginning to feel she was running out of options. She finally reached her breaking point in response to the death of her son's father; that's when she resolved to seek the guidance of God. Damekio now knows that every experience of her life-the positive and the negative-was a lesson. Making mistakes and learning from them helped her to become the strong, passionate woman she is today. She now hopes to share her testimony to give hope to others who may be facing the dilemmas she did.

Street Witness with a Testimony

By Damekio Gardner

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Damekio Gardner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4697-0038-0

Contents

Acknowledgements...........................................vIntroduction...............................................1Hood Life..................................................3Life as a Teen.............................................8Isolation..................................................14Home Away From Home........................................19Freedom....................................................26Taste of the Real World....................................31Hustler....................................................41Ups & Downs................................................48Last Goodbyes..............................................56Grieving/Suicidal..........................................67Fears......................................................74Fighting Temptation All Over Again.........................81Last Chances...............................................93I surrender................................................108A Mother's Blessings.......................................114Delvin.....................................................116Roman Jr...................................................117Mikayla....................................................118Michael Jr.................................................119Stronger After Trials and Tribulations.....................120

Chapter One

Hood Life

Growing up in the ghetto wasn't the life that I desired to live, but as my mom would always say, it wasn't where you live, but how you live.

I had three older brothers, and two younger sisters. As children, we grew up in a place where it wasn't easy growing up. When I walked out of the door of my home, there was always a fight awaiting us. The fights were always meaningless. The apartment complex that we grew up in was called The Palms. This complex was designed for single parents who were in a low income bracket. My mom worked, but our rent was only $13 per month, excluding utilities. I remember struggling to the point that sometimes we did not have new shoes or clothes, but my mom made sure that what we had was clean. She also made sure that we were awake every morning by 7am to prepare for school, no matter how drunk she had gotten the night before. We were always on time for school too. My mom loved to party and drink, but on the other hand, she loved us.

Between the six of us my oldest brother Larry was the most laid back of the bunch. He avoided trouble most of the time unless he was provoked. Larry was the one who always assisted us with our homework. My second oldest brother Quintrilies gave my mom many problems. He was the one who took no mess from anybody. It was always one person in the hood that nobody bothered and that person was him. My mom would always say to him, Quint, "I don't want any problems out of you today, do not pick anything up to throw at anyone, or else!" My brother had an issue where he liked to throw things at people, such as rocks. Anything that he decided to throw at you was guaranteed to hit you. I can remember hearing sirens, and watching my mom make her way to the back of the Palms, because she knew it was Quint in trouble once again. On this particular occasion, he was angry with a girl; he picked up a rock, aimed it at her eye, and nearly knocked it out. My mom pleaded with her family not to press charges on Quint. If it wasn't Quint in trouble, it was me or my other brother Eddie that was born right before me. If we weren't fighting each other, we were fighting another big family, "The Browns". They were the bullies in the complex. Their mindset was that they ruled the Palms.

I distinctively remember an episode when I was around eleven or twelve years old, that one day while I was on the playground, one of the girls from the Brown family came to the playground and told me to move because she wanted to play on the swing that I was on. I pushed her and told her no; we began to fight. Her sister LaTonya witnessed the fight and jumped in to help her sister. Before I knew it, my brother Eddie was on the scene. He had a long cord in his hand and yelled "Yall better get off of my sister!" He began to swing the cord at them. No matter how much Eddie and I fought each other, when it came down to protecting each other, we always did so. Eddie and I were like glue, wherever I went he went. Many people thought we were twins because we looked so much alike. My mom called us by our nicknames, Bop and Keyonna. Every day she would say "Bop and Keyonna, no fighting today and stay away from those ditches!"

My brother Eddie was a lot like our father; he loved to fish. Growing up, we did not have our father in our lives. We didn't see him much. I always felt that everyone deserved a father that played an important role in their lives. He never came around on our birthdays, Christmas, or any other special occasion. He never even picked up the phone to say happy birthday, I love you or Merry Christmas or anything else. I can count the times on one hand that he came to visit us; not very many. My mother told me that on one occasion when I was around five years old, he came to see us and me and my brother were jumping all over him because we were so happy to see him. My mom said that he would say "Diane get her so I can leave." My mom grabbed me so he could leave. I must've known that it would be a while before I would see him again. My mom said that I would feel so sad after he left. Coming up as a child fatherless, makes me believe that is why me and my brother Eddie were so close growing up. My brother was always a bit weird. He would make a fishing rod out of string and a hook to go fishing. He always had the pleasure of dragging me along into trouble with him. One early morning turned into a late night. Me, Bop and two of our friends from the Brown family were supposed to be going fishing, but instead decided to go swimming in the lake. Someone told our mom, "Diane, I thought I saw your son and daughter back there in the lake swimming with two other children." Minutes later, all we heard was my mom yelling "Bop and Keyonna!" and her footsteps quickly coming toward us. "Bop, that sound like Momma" and he replied "Shut up, that ain't momma!" There she was with the longest belt ever; she beat us all the way back home yelling "Don't yall know that it's gators and snakes in that lake?" "You both could've been killed!" I blamed Bop for making me go, but I never went back again. Living in the projects back then, we had to create things to do for fun. Going fishing was one of the things we liked to do most. We did not have to go far because there was a lake directly behind our complex. I was more like a tomboy, and so was my friend Tonya. We always hung around the boys. Instead of playing hopscotch, we played football with the boys. As soon as we were tackled by the boys, we ran home crying. The first thing our parents would say is "Yall should not be outside playing with the boys. "Yall should be playing hopscotch or jump rope with the girls."

My mom purchased our clothes from Miami, FL. Me and my sisters had long hair, and my mom would braid our hair and dress us alike. Antissha was born after me, and after her my baby sister Victoria was born. My mom husband, who is the father of my last two sisters, was like a father to all of us. We all attended an elementary school called Mollie Ray. I loved school as a child, and my grades were pretty good, but I was also the class clown. My favorite...