Avia Ustanny, Outlook Writer

Church is must for the Headley family.Contributed

Today marks the beginning of National Foster Care Recognition Week, which aims to salute foster parents and their contribution to national development. Today, Outlook brings to you three remarkable stories of people who have opened their hearts and homes to children who are not their own.

Agatha's children

Agatha Headley has fostered 11 children in her lifetime at her home in Hanover, starting with two brothers 33 years ago. The brothers were to remain in her home until one died at age 28 and the other left for a home of his home while he was in his 30s.

Their arrival in her home was to be followed by several more children who she cared for, along with the two children born to her, and a stepdaughter.

At age 65, Mrs. Headley is now proud to have three foster children, age two, 11 and 15.

The retired hotel worker and seamstress has had as many as seven children to care for all at once, but she says that fostering is an experience which she has always loved.

She recalls how it began: "A Ms. Viera was the officer in Montego Bay and Mr. Austin Taylor, Justice of the Peace, were the ones who told me about the government children they wantedsomeone to take care of.

"They sent someone to come and look at my home and I got the two brothers first.

"I never had no hard time," she recalls.

"I just take them like my own and raise (them) with my children. I had two children, a daughter and a son and a stepdaughter for myself."

She said that her job was made easier because, in earlier times, her husband, carpenter Vernon Headley, was employed and helping out in the home as much as he could.

Her other foster charges included minors Sheree, Jasper, Seaton, Sherry-Lee and "another boy who ran way from Blenheim. He only left me because his relatives wanted him back," Agatha Headley recalls.

She reflects, "At one time, I had seven, but it was not a problem because my husband worked. It was not a bother to me because they were not a bother to me.

"Both boys and girls," she states, "Presented the same challenges. The talking I have with mine I do not have it with them (the foster children). They knew their duties and if I said 'go and do this' they did it. I never have no problem. If they did things they were not supposed to do, I catch them and beat them just like my child."

Among her current charges is a girl who ismentally-challenged, and whose frequent illness has kept her out of school. The others are going to Sandy Bay Junior High School where they struggle in school, their foster Mom admits. The boys have a hard time in the classroom and she wishes that this would change.

Otherwise, her charges always bloom under her care and in response to her love.

She states, "I would tell others to make sure to take the children as if they were their own. Some people do it (foster) because they believe a lot of money isthere and later get discouraged. Others do them all kind of things. If they are not going to love them they should not foster as the children them need love."

She finally reflects, "my children them did really need love. One, when I just get her and I started to hug her, it come strange to her. Me kiss her and it come like it did strange. Now, is pure laughter. She getting used to it. Now, she grab me herself and kiss me all the time.

"Loving is a big part of it. If them not getting loving, it don't make no sense. Some people buy snacks and lock them away. Children love the snacks, they cannot keep food from them. It is not realistic."

Although Agatha is retired and diabetic and her husband suffers from hypertension, she feels that caring for the motherless and fatherless is something that she can continue to do.