February 23, 2024

Here is a narrative about one little boy, based on a true story. I’m sharing it as an example of the life of a white person who was not privileged.

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Giles lived in England in 1617.  He was nine years old. H is mother Mary and sister Elizabeth had died of “The Sickness.”  His father had sailed away to Jamestown, Virginia, almost seven years earlier.  People said that Father must be dead because his ship had met a hurricane near Bermuda.

Giles still had one sister, named Constance.  He called her Connie.  The two of them were made wards of the church.  They went to an orphanage until their Uncle William claimed them and took them into his home.  In that busy household, no one even noticed them.

Giles’s dog had died, too.  It was a terrier that caught rats.  Unfortunately, the rats, which had caused his mother’s and his sister’s sickness, caused the dog to get sick and die.

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Giles tried to live with his losses as much as he could as a young boy.  He was very angry, and he took his anger out on the rats, throwing stones at them when he could.

Giles wondered if he would have a chance to live, to grow up and be a man.  He wondered if God even knew he was there or cared for him at all, but he continued to say his prayers, which tied him to his mother somehow.

One miraculous day, a maid heard Giles’s complaints as he spoke in anger to God.  She told Giles that she was sure he would live a long and interesting life.  Later that day, she came and told Giles and Constance to brace for some news: their father Stephen had returned to England.  He was coming for them.

Such news was too good to be believed.  Giles did not believe it, until he saw his father coming up the lane with a trunk on his back.

The reunion was bittersweet.  Stephen and his children fell upon each other and did not want to let go.  He apologized to them for being away when their mother and sister had died.  He expressed grief with words the children could not access themselves, and he expressed hope for reunion with them in Heaven.  He asked for forgiveness from Giles and Constance.

Giles wanted to forgive his father, but his anger would not let him at first.  “Why did you go so far away?” he said.  “How could you leave us like that?”