Ann Grifalconi

From the Preface:
I wanted to tell you about Jimmy Hampton
How he lived and died in
That place they call a “home”
And what Jimmy meant to me
And all the others
Tough dude! Yeah--cold as ice
But...

Then I begin remembering
Every step of the way
Me and my little Brother Dicky took
How scared we was when we got there...

But lemme tell you...
'Fore he slips through again his time
Slippery as an eel
Trying to be forgotten--even in
My own memory!

...One last chance, Jimmy!
For the life you never got
To live.
Because?
Because--you made me see the difference...

'Cause I can’t talk about Jimmy
Without I tell you about the other side:
Mine.
What I was feared of losing
But didn’t know I had
And how that worked
To hold us together
In the end.

From the Afterword:
Dedicated to James Jimmy Hampton
Born: Black Family: lost stolen and strayed
“Home”: since infancy, St. B's Children’s Home
Died: aged eleven years, two months

...Talk about fault. Whose fault was it?
What did Jimmy know about
What it could have been like
To have someone love him
Not just keep a watch on him--
But care about him
All the time
In the back of their skull
In the touch of their hands.
He didn’t have a clue
It just didn’t work out that way
for him...
Just a little kid, and I knew him--
Cool, tight, silent...
And I’m still angry.
I mourn
The love he never knew.

How This Book Came About
Some years ago, Ann Grifalconi became a counselor on a children’s home, which served as a sort of halfway house for urban families who had suffered sudden, unexpected emergencies and were temporarily unable to care for their children.

The children she met when she worked there were of all ages and emotional states. Some were dull with pain; others shone from the inside, in spite of having parents who were facing many troubles. It was then that she realized the difference was simply the presence or absence of having been loved that made all the difference.
Years later, she came upon a sketch of one of the boys, Jimmy, that she’d known there. On its margin were scribbled some notes about his fate...which triggered a cascade of memories. This book was the result.