I usually do not get interested in issues involving inmates etc. in prisons, but I found this particular story very interesting because of Roberta Bell who stepped up when somebody had to.
From BlazeMedia:
58-year-old Roberta Bell lives in Vickburg, Mississippi, where she takes care of five of her eight grandchildren. Bell worked as a corrections officer at the Louisiana Transitional Center for Women when she met a pregnant woman who needed help.
Katie Bourgeois only needed to serve two more months on her sentence, but she was about to give birth. No one in her family could take in the child until she was released and she asked Bell if she could take the baby. Bell agreed and alerted her supervisor, who told her that there was a conflict of interest with her job.
“I said, if the hospital calls me to come get that baby, I’m going to get that baby,” Bell told CBS News. “And he said, ‘Well, OK, I’m going to have to terminate you.'”
Bell decided the baby was more important than her job. A week later, the baby was born and she took him home with her.
Bourgeois was released on July Fourth, and she went straight to Bell’s home to pick up her baby.
“She was kind of, you know, a little nervous because he didn’t really know her and she says, ‘He’s crying, Ms. Bell,’ and I said, ‘Well baby,’ I say, ‘He’s got to get used to you,'” Bell explained to CBS News.
Bell found a new calling after word spread in the community and people began to donate money and baby products to her.
“God provided so much stuff,” Bell said tearfully. “People came by, agencies called. It [was] just overwhelming, because I couldn’t do it by myself. That was part of my ministry that I’m getting ready to start.”
Bell, who now works sorting cans at a food distributor, is using the donations to establish a transitional home for women leaving prison called the “Serenity House.”
A truly amazing example of self sacrifice … Roberta Bell stepping up when there was no one else! Roberta Bell is a truly amazing person that we all can admire and hope to emulate.
What makes this even more amazing to me is that while Katie Bourgeois and her baby are white, Roberta Bell is black and lives in Mississippi!
11/19/23