could possibly commit to three more children. She had a full time
job at the factory, and the children were nine months, two, and
three years old. Two weeks passed, and she got another call. “They
said, ‘Ms. Collins, we really need for you to take these children.
You’re their family.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ll talk to my husband.’” Margaret
already knew he would say the obvious and agree with her that it
just wasn’t possible. As soon as J. B. came in from work that night,
she told him about the call. He said without so much as a pause,
“Well, yes, we’ll take them.’”
With a half-smile, she said, “It was not what I expected to hear.”
Margaret and J. B. went to Lakeland, and overnight seven children
turned to ten. Margaret quit her job at the shirt factory and drove a
school bus for Montgomery County to give her more time at home.
Four years later, the children’s biological parents moved from
Florida to Mount Vernon. “They pulled the two older boys back
into their home. I’d gotten them to the twelfth grade, anyway,”
said Margaret. “I felt thankful for that.” A year or so later, she said,
“DFCS gave the younger three children back to the parents.”
It wasn’t like Margaret didn’t already have a house full with
her own family to see about. But instead of considering herself free
from the responsibility of caring for children other than her own,
she thought, “I had taken care of these five children for ten years
and it was something I wanted to do. I thought, ‘Why not check into
becoming a foster parent?’”
Margaret with her Margaret and J. B. went through the process, which included
dog Samson.
Hometown Living At Its Best 81