I always believed that mother-love was next to Divine love, the most
beautiful and unselfish of all affections, but the belief has been
intensified since I have learned to know the many sorrowing mothers
of our "boys" in prison, who despite all they have suffered; shame,
disappointment and wrong, have loved on and stood faithfully by their
erring ones. I believe such mothers are the great hope and very sheet
anchor to men who can never quite forget them, however far they may go
astray and disregard their prayers and wishes.
Just as we find within prison walls men of every class, so the homes
on which the blow has fallen are widely different, and the needs
represented are often in great contrast. One mother surrounded by
wealth in a home of ease and comfort may not need material help, but
craves that which comes from true heart sympathy. Another may, in her
old age, be left utterly destitute and have to face sickness and want,
yet with both, the boy in prison is the first thought, and any one who
can help him is welcome as their friend. No work especially organized
to help the mothers and families of men in prison and commencing with
them, could be successful. They are not to be found by inquiries from
tenement to tenement; they certainly would not be attracted by an
announcement over an office building proclaiming it as a bureau for
their special assistance. They have their pride and self-respect and
rather than go and seek help or pour out the story of their woes and
wrongs to strangers, they would hide away and bear their burden alone.
From the very commencement of our prison work I realized that it must
be a movement of natural growth, that each want as it was found must be
met by the method that developed to meet it. As the men grew to know
and trust us, they began to tell us of the dear ones at home. Many a
time a young man in prison under an alias would confide his real name,
and give us the duty of breaking gently to his dear ones the knowledge
of his whereabouts. With others there was the feeling that long silence
spoke of unforgiveness at home, and it was for us to try and bring
about a reconciliation. Very often the distress and suffering of his
family has caused a man worry almost to the point of madness and a
letter has been hurriedly written asking us to go post-haste and render
the needed help.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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