Tuesday, August 29, 2006
The Plains Trip, Detroit, Michigan (Day 4)

It's a cliché to say that someone has lived several lifetimes, but in the case of 23-year-old LaKeesha Perry, it's close to the truth. She has gone through more in her lifetime than most people anywhere, much less her peers. And she maintains a schedule her friends find unbelievable.

LaKeesha has an associate's degree, and is now studying for a bachelor's in manufacturing technology at Wayne State University. She's also working full-time in a General Motors internship program that rotates her through different departments.

But her sons -- ages 8, 2 and 8 months -- occupy just about every other minute of her waking hours.

LaKeesha, second youngest out of seven siblings, grew up accustomed to spending every weekend with her father, helping him tinker with things that needed to be fixed, from cars to anything broken around the house. That's how she said she developed an aptitude for mechanics.

But at 14, LaKeesha began to hang out at what she describes as her older brother's unsupervised "fun house," where "friends" were always coming and going. There finally came a day when her mother noticed something, and took LaKeesha to the doctor.

"My mom had never explained what led to babies," she told me. "I was surprised when I found out I was pregnant."

The people around here were "sad" about it, she said, but despite one sister's advice to have an abortion, LaKeesha went along with her mother, who encouraged her to have the child: "You can do this, I'll help you," her mother said, according to LaKeesha. One week before she turned 15, she gave birth to Jonathan.

It wasn't long before LaKeesha and her mother were arguing over space at the house, and over how much it cost to care for the baby.

Fortunately, LaKeesha's father let her move in with him -- giving her a stable home for a year or so, while she finished high school and made plans to take some college courses. But when he was forced to give up his home and move in with an older daughter, LaKeesha saw no room for herself and Jonathan.

For several months, she bounced around, at times living with her mother again, and trying to seek out Jonathan's father, who had been in and out of jail. She grew tearful as she recalled the times when she was so desperate for a good night's sleep that she took her small son and slept in her van in the driveway in front of her mother's house. She needed her sleep so she could stay awake in class the next day.

Things would get worse before they got better. At one point she wound up in a shelter.

But they did get better: LaKeesha signed on with a program called Focus: HOPE, which is designed to train disadvantaged young people for good jobs and independence. She was also accepted into a federally funded housing project, and today lives in a town home with the three boys.

Her relationship with the father of the younger two children isn't clear. She says he is a "nice" person who runs his own business and comes from a "nice" family -- someone she originally thought she wanted to marry. But now she's not sure. "The most important thing in my life are the children," she said. If she finds someone who fits into that life, that would be great. "If not, it's OK, because I've made it this far alone."

What does she want in the near term? She said: To get that bachelor's degree and have a good job, so she can raise her boys. "One teacher told me to remove the word 'can't' from my vocabulary. And I have."

What does she want for the future? "I don't want any glam and glitz. I just want to have a stable home, where I can raise the boys, have them finish school, go to college and be able to do the things that make them happy."

In the meantime, what does she do for fun? "I think it's fun just to be alone, by myself for a few minutes. Just a few minutes of quiet. My friends, they don't understand."

-- Judy Woodruff