Miss Momica’s Words
I remember the lady at the Youth Center like it was yesterday. I was a struggling single mom with two sons wreaking havoc as their way of acting out when their dad left. She was working there and come to find out, her kids went there as well. One day my younger son had a particularly rough day at school and was on the verge of being expelled. I went straight to the Youth Center as soon as I got off, ready to take the bull by the horns and whip some sense into him
When I got there, though, he was putting some toys away and the lady at the Youth Center was givning him a high five. I watched him impulsively hug her and say, “Thank you, Miss Momica!” Wait a minute, this was Miss Momica? This was the lady who had transferred in from another state and had the kids all excited about soccer in the upcoming season?
I went over and talked to her and she really looked happy to see me. She told me my two boys talked about me often and she was glad to meet me. I told her about Johnny being called in to the principal’s office and she said he had told her about that. She said he had written a note apologizing to the principal and asking if he could make amends for throwing the rock at his car. She had called the principal and he was going to let Johnny make his apology and give him another chance.
I told her I left my husband because he was doing drugs and that one night Johnny had gotten into them. I couldn’t take chances like that with my kids. Now, I felt like I was never home, I was in a job I hated and I just wanted to be with them.
The next day Miss Momica called me and asked me if I was interested in working in the office at the Youth Center. She said I could also work with the kids in the afternoon if I wanted. I immediately said yes, making one of the best decisions of my life. I then asked her why the kids call her Miss Momica. She laughed and said her name was Miss Monica to the kids at the Youth Center till they heard her three kids call her Miss Momica. Then it stuck for all of them.
That was back in the 90s. Miss Momica and I became good friends and she told me she had worked in the Juvenile Division in California and decided to try to stay connected with her kids. She then went into any job that had to do with being hands on for her own kids and was the soccer coach for years at the Youth Center till her husband retired and they moved off to Alabama. I still see her influence on Johnny today; he volunteers with younger kids at the Youth Center. His favorite sport. Soccer.
