One story that happened to me when I was sixteen years old. We were a group of young kids fooling around. We all do that. We get in trouble. Actually, we went to the Perkins and I did tell this story to my kids because one of them was older than us. She was seventeen and she got the food stamp and she thought the food stamp was the credit card. So she was like, she invited us to the Perkins. And she was like, let's go eat. And we went there. We ordered food, whatever they want. And then the pay time came and she handed the food stamp and the guy was like, you can't buy food with this food. And basically everyone mother came and she paid for it. And no one paid for it for me because I didn't have a mother. I ended up washing the dishes for a whole week. I remember saying that I wish the grave have a phone that I could call my mom. So I ended up washing the dishes. And then they started blaming on me, even though I wasn't me, the one who came up with the first card. It was so weird. So basically when when we get trouble, people pick on me all the time because I was an easy target, where the other kids have their mothers backing up and say, hey, don't talk to my child like that. So, like I said, you will never know when that time comes. So be kind to your parents. Be kind to your parents, especially to your mother, because your mother is your wall. She will take the bullet for you. And and I can say that because I've been through it.
--Deka Ali / mother & cultural navigator from East Grand Forks Minnesota
