Velma

One of the first places I lived on my own was an old apartment building in Pasadena. It had to be one of the first built. There where a total of four apartments, two downstairs and two upstairs. Mr. Bates and Velma lived on the first floor and Susan and Clyde and us lived on the second floor.Ms Velma was a cute petite thing with a supervisor position with Pasadena Laundry I think it was called.. They washed all the linen for the big hotels and rich folks that didn't want to do their laundry.

This was in1968 and this was a big business, employing lots of local ladies and Ms Velma at risen to the top of where she was gonna go because of one major problem, Ms Velma was a drunk. She wasn't the lovable drunk either, Ms Lady would turn violent in a minute. Well as time went on and we got to know each other I found out a little bit of her background. She was raised in the South by her grandmother, one of those the cutest thing in town, dressed real nice and seem to have it all. She finished high school, real big in those days, met a man and got married.

Velma was pregnant almost immediately and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl she named Sunshine, she said cause her world was cloudy without her. Velma and husband broke up and she had to go back to work to support her and her child, daddy's were really sorry in those days and the woman had no recourse to collect child support. Well one day she comes home for lunch and running late she dashed out of the house. As she was backing up she her a thump and thought she had run over one of Sunshine's toys. As she got out of the car she saw a tiny hand sticking out by the back tire and there lay Sunshine under the wheels of the car. Velma the baby didn't even live to the hospital, she died in the ambulance.

My heart went out to her and I couldn't imagine the pain her heart must have felt. It seems Sunshine had learned to open the door and had followed her momma outside, such a little thing it was impossible to see her standing behind the car, truly an accident, but Velma never forgave herself. I moved away and didn't see her for awhile, come to find out Clyde had left Susan and was now with Velma, oh yea he was a drunk also. A drunk working in a liquor store, had to know that wouldn't last long.

I don't know what happen to Velma but I learned many lessons from her, one of which is as people we can do more harm to ourselves than anybody else ever could.