May 11, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, for our Mother's Day Special, Alan Brown, a listener of Our American Stories, shares a story about him and his strong-willed mother, and how they both battled and survived poverty and an abusive marriage, coming out the other side better and closer than ever.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we return to our American Stories Mother's Day Special.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All show along.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We're telling stories about mothers and from mothers. Up next
to story from Alan Brown. Alan's mother had him when
she was only sixteen and they lived a hard life
despite the trauma. He's his superhero. Here's Alan with a story.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My name is Alan Scott Brown, and I have a
hero and this is her story. Some soldiers get a medal,
some statesmen have monuments built to them, and so people
have blocks on the wall for their achievements. And then
there are some that you never hear about that probably
should have all of the above. She was fifteen years
(00:57):
old from a small town and she was day raped.
Tried to stop the guy, couldn't do it. She was
all of five foot and one hundred pounds, and she
did try to commit suicide twice when depression hit her
as she was pregnant with me, and she did marry him.
(01:20):
You might say it was a silent shotgun wedding without
the shotgun, but abuses in the marriage or terrible. He
was a violent person and it was psychological, it was physical,
and she protected me as a baby throughout the ordeal.
A divorce did happen finally two years later, and there
(01:44):
would be no child support. So she knew it was
going to be a hard life. It was going to
be rough life. And back in those days we're talking
early sixties here, that was kind of expected. You just
you just didn't get a divorce unless it was appbsolutely necessary.
She was a single parent with those psychological demons, and
(02:05):
she felt like she was worthless. She felt like that
her reputation had been ruined. She was heavy in her
faith at her church, and she didn't want to have
that mark that stain on her, of course, and she
didn't know how to deal with it. After all. By
this time, when I was born, she was sixteen years old.
(02:25):
But we made it through things. We lived in her parents'
house for a while, and five years later she remarried
and we moved all over Texas for four years. The
guy she married was really interested in jumping from job
to job to job to job. I was in eleven
different towns and ten different schools, and I suffered scholastically.
(02:50):
I was at a really bad school where we just
didn't learn a lot. We watched mister Rogers, you know,
on television, and we did artwork and listened to music
and that was about it. And then I was able
to get out of there, and she was able to
talk the principle in my fourth grade year to go
ahead and take me if she got a tutor for me,
(03:12):
a private tutor. She couldn't afford that, but she did
what she could. She started getting jobs at overnight hours,
so these overnight shifts, and we got through fourth grade
just barely. And then she had to course the principal
in the next school for fifth grade in another town
(03:32):
to take me into fifth grade, even though I was
way behind. So literally, i'll just tell you I went
from second grade to fifth grade. Then that's what happened,
with a private tutor in between that really cared and
really did help me. But it was a hard, hard time.
We were poor and we had a tough life, but
(03:54):
I didn't think of us as poor at the time.
I didn't think we were having a hard life. Yeah,
I knew that. At one house we lived in, I
had id growing through my wall, but I had no
idea why. I thought it was kind of cool. And
there were times when there wouldn't be water or gas,
or there wouldn't be electricity, and I didn't understand why,
(04:15):
but nevertheless, she took these overnight positions, mainly assembly line shifts,
so that she could be available for me in the daytime.
She was an outstanding singer. I should tell you that
she was incredible. She was like a Doris Day type vocal,
and she could have done a lot of things with
her career, but she put that aside to make sure
(04:37):
that she was available for me, just being that selfless
that she kept getting rejected for loans and credit simply
because in the nineteen sixties, a divorced woman was well,
she was somewhat looked upon in a different light than
she would be today. This would be her second divorce.
(05:00):
She had very difficult times trying to get any kind
of credit, any kind of way to get a leg up,
so to speak. And she was so independent that she
would not accept help from her own parents. So we
lived a life of poverty and we ate government cheese
and the churches we would go to. She was even
(05:20):
a second class citizen there because they would call her
missus Brown, they wouldn't call her by her first name.
And then she was only in her mid twenties at
the time. Again, I didn't understand that she didn't really
talk to me about those things, but that was a
way that she saw as protecting me from keeping me
from the struggles of life, and struggles of life they were.
(05:48):
There were layoffs galore from a lot of her jobs
she took. I remember a time she took in between layoffs.
In between jobs, she took an overnight shift at a
seven eleven store and again another small town in North Texas,
and that summer she invited me to come with her,
(06:09):
and I did. I had been staying alone overnight in
these overnight hours since fourth grade. So we would go
in eleven o'clock at night and stay till seven in
the morning. And that was that was quite unique to
be able to be with her, to see her interact
with customers, and to actually help her do her job.
You know, I was, you know, sweeping mop floors and whatever,
(06:30):
and that felt like warmth to me. You know, that
she wanted me there. And there were little things like
that that she would do, and little surprises that she
would do to to to again make me feel like
that we had a great relationship and to remind me.
But then early puberty came and it was not always
(06:55):
easy for her, I physically resembled my bio, and that
tour at her just sometimes looking at me walking down
the hall. It ripped her apart, and there were hard times.
She began to act out in different ways, and for
(07:16):
about two or three years there were some abuses that happened,
and eventually she began to better herself. She stood on
her faith. She continued to make sure that I was
in church and that I studied the scriptures, and that
we prayed together. And in my endeavors, I can point
(07:37):
back to her and see that she was my number
one fan, that she was a cheerleader for me. She
encouraged me in my talents and the things that I
wanted to try. I took piano lessons and violin lessons,
guitar lessons and vocal lessons. I got a junior high
football and then it was karate. And how she ever
(07:58):
came up with the money to do all that, I
still don't know. I mean, she saved as much as
she could, but again we were poor. But she wanted
to make sure that I was able to do the
things and use talents that I had and to do
the things that I loved, even if it meant working harder, longer,
(08:19):
making overtime hours happen. And that's the kind of soldier
that she was. And now at seventy seven years old,
she's starting to fade. Cognitive struggles are happening, and I
(08:40):
know there's going to be decisions that are going to
have to be made soon. She lives by herself and
she was an umbrella for me all my life, and
now it's my turn to be her umbrella. It's an
honor to be able to serve her because she taught
me servanthood and that's who she is today. So with
(09:00):
my family and knowing what the future may or may
not hold, I can tell you this, we are her
medal of honor. We are her monuments, we are her memorials.
And that's the plan. That's what I'm sticking to. But
all in all, she was my mom, she was my dad.
All at the same time, I was bettered as a child.
(09:25):
I shouldn't be here, you know, one can say that,
but that wasn't God's plan. You know, it just wasn't
the plan. She is a grade A number one mother
of this injury.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And a great job on the production by Monty Montgomery
and a special thanks to Alan Brown all show long.
We're celebrating Mother's Day here on our American story
And we return to our American Stories Mother's Day Special.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
All show along.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
We're telling stories about mothers and from mothers. Up next
to story from Alan Brown. Alan's mother had him when
she was only sixteen and they lived a hard life
despite the trauma. He's his superhero. Here's Alan with a story.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My name is Alan Scott Brown, and I have a
hero and this is her story. Some soldiers get a medal,
some statesmen have monuments built to them, and so people
have blocks on the wall for their achievements. And then
there are some that you never hear about that probably
should have all of the above. She was fifteen years
(00:57):
old from a small town and she was day raped.
Tried to stop the guy, couldn't do it. She was
all of five foot and one hundred pounds, and she
did try to commit suicide twice when depression hit her
as she was pregnant with me, and she did marry him.
(01:20):
You might say it was a silent shotgun wedding without
the shotgun, but abuses in the marriage or terrible. He
was a violent person and it was psychological, it was physical,
and she protected me as a baby throughout the ordeal.
A divorce did happen finally two years later, and there
(01:44):
would be no child support. So she knew it was
going to be a hard life. It was going to
be rough life. And back in those days we're talking
early sixties here, that was kind of expected. You just
you just didn't get a divorce unless it was appbsolutely necessary.
She was a single parent with those psychological demons, and
(02:05):
she felt like she was worthless. She felt like that
her reputation had been ruined. She was heavy in her
faith at her church, and she didn't want to have
that mark that stain on her, of course, and she
didn't know how to deal with it. After all. By
this time, when I was born, she was sixteen years old.
(02:25):
But we made it through things. We lived in her parents'
house for a while, and five years later she remarried
and we moved all over Texas for four years. The
guy she married was really interested in jumping from job
to job to job to job. I was in eleven
different towns and ten different schools, and I suffered scholastically.
(02:50):
I was at a really bad school where we just
didn't learn a lot. We watched mister Rogers, you know,
on television, and we did artwork and listened to music
and that was about it. And then I was able
to get out of there, and she was able to
talk the principle in my fourth grade year to go
ahead and take me if she got a tutor for me,
(03:12):
a private tutor. She couldn't afford that, but she did
what she could. She started getting jobs at overnight hours,
so these overnight shifts, and we got through fourth grade
just barely. And then she had to course the principal
in the next school for fifth grade in another town
(03:32):
to take me into fifth grade, even though I was
way behind. So literally, i'll just tell you I went
from second grade to fifth grade. Then that's what happened,
with a private tutor in between that really cared and
really did help me. But it was a hard, hard time.
We were poor and we had a tough life, but
(03:54):
I didn't think of us as poor at the time.
I didn't think we were having a hard life. Yeah,
I knew that. At one house we lived in, I
had id growing through my wall, but I had no
idea why. I thought it was kind of cool. And
there were times when there wouldn't be water or gas,
or there wouldn't be electricity, and I didn't understand why,
(04:15):
but nevertheless, she took these overnight positions, mainly assembly line shifts,
so that she could be available for me in the daytime.
She was an outstanding singer. I should tell you that
she was incredible. She was like a Doris Day type vocal,
and she could have done a lot of things with
her career, but she put that aside to make sure
(04:37):
that she was available for me, just being that selfless
that she kept getting rejected for loans and credit simply
because in the nineteen sixties, a divorced woman was well,
she was somewhat looked upon in a different light than
she would be today. This would be her second divorce.
(05:00):
She had very difficult times trying to get any kind
of credit, any kind of way to get a leg up,
so to speak. And she was so independent that she
would not accept help from her own parents. So we
lived a life of poverty and we ate government cheese
and the churches we would go to. She was even
(05:20):
a second class citizen there because they would call her
missus Brown, they wouldn't call her by her first name.
And then she was only in her mid twenties at
the time. Again, I didn't understand that she didn't really
talk to me about those things, but that was a
way that she saw as protecting me from keeping me
from the struggles of life, and struggles of life they were.
(05:48):
There were layoffs galore from a lot of her jobs
she took. I remember a time she took in between layoffs.
In between jobs, she took an overnight shift at a
seven eleven store and again another small town in North Texas,
and that summer she invited me to come with her,
(06:09):
and I did. I had been staying alone overnight in
these overnight hours since fourth grade. So we would go
in eleven o'clock at night and stay till seven in
the morning. And that was that was quite unique to
be able to be with her, to see her interact
with customers, and to actually help her do her job.
You know, I was, you know, sweeping mop floors and whatever,
(06:30):
and that felt like warmth to me. You know, that
she wanted me there. And there were little things like
that that she would do, and little surprises that she
would do to to to again make me feel like
that we had a great relationship and to remind me.
But then early puberty came and it was not always
(06:55):
easy for her, I physically resembled my bio, and that
tour at her just sometimes looking at me walking down
the hall. It ripped her apart, and there were hard times.
She began to act out in different ways, and for
(07:16):
about two or three years there were some abuses that happened,
and eventually she began to better herself. She stood on
her faith. She continued to make sure that I was
in church and that I studied the scriptures, and that
we prayed together. And in my endeavors, I can point
(07:37):
back to her and see that she was my number
one fan, that she was a cheerleader for me. She
encouraged me in my talents and the things that I
wanted to try. I took piano lessons and violin lessons,
guitar lessons and vocal lessons. I got a junior high
football and then it was karate. And how she ever
(07:58):
came up with the money to do all that, I
still don't know. I mean, she saved as much as
she could, but again we were poor. But she wanted
to make sure that I was able to do the
things and use talents that I had and to do
the things that I loved, even if it meant working harder, longer,
(08:19):
making overtime hours happen. And that's the kind of soldier
that she was. And now at seventy seven years old,
she's starting to fade. Cognitive struggles are happening, and I
(08:40):
know there's going to be decisions that are going to
have to be made soon. She lives by herself and
she was an umbrella for me all my life, and
now it's my turn to be her umbrella. It's an
honor to be able to serve her because she taught
me servanthood and that's who she is today. So with
(09:00):
my family and knowing what the future may or may
not hold, I can tell you this, we are her
medal of honor. We are her monuments, we are her memorials.
And that's the plan. That's what I'm sticking to. But
all in all, she was my mom, she was my dad.
All at the same time, I was bettered as a child.
(09:25):
I shouldn't be here, you know, one can say that,
but that wasn't God's plan. You know, it just wasn't
the plan. She is a grade A number one mother
of this injury.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And a great job on the production by Monty Montgomery
and a special thanks to Alan Brown all show long.
We're celebrating Mother's Day here on our American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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