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Created: February 13, 2003
Latest Update: February 13, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Ladies in Waiting

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, February 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on a romance novel shared with us by Marsha Walker: Ladies in Waiting. A Novel. By Linda Hudson-Smith, New Spirit Books, BET Publications, 2002. ISBN: 1-58314-295-9. I was more than a little surprised at Marsha's gift of what clearly called itself a novel, and a romance novel, at that, until I read into it far enough to discover that "ladies in waiting" is the label guards give to the women who visit their loved ones, boyfriends, spouses, fathers, sons, in prison.

A world I'd never seen. Oh, I have read prison stories, and considered the pain incarceraton brings to the whole family. Some of my friends work with prison ministries. But there are many questions I never asked about the nature of the relationships between men in prison, and the women who love them on the outside. I probably didn't want to know that much.

As a child, I watched my father commit misdemeanors that would have landed him in jail had he been caught. I guess I knew he was a con man, but I didn't know what all that meant. When I get back from the death penalty defense seminar, I'll tell you how such events lead to states of denial. Nag me so I don't forget. and I have lots more to tell you about Ladies in Waiting. jeanne