Old and weary.
It doesn’t matter if they don’t have a place to stay or relatives to welcome them with open arms. What is important for old persons, who have served more than half of their lives as inmates at the Correctional Institution for Women, is to walk as free individuals.
Some old folks who don’t have families to come home to were brought to the Home for the Aged for care.
I have met some old women inmates at the CIW when I was still with PJI. They cried the moment they began telling their stories…I couldn’t help but cry with them too, especially when they talk about their children and how miserable their lives have become when they were sent to prison.
They’ve missed their children’s birthdays, graduation days…special events in the lives of their loved ones that they wish they were a part of…They even missed burial of their own children…so tragic, but true.
I still keep some of their photos. I’m not sure if these two grandmothers have been released from the institution. Both of them originated from the north and have been charged for drug-related offense.
If both of them have not been released yet, I hope that they will get their freedom back soon.
And if they were already reunited with their loved ones, I wish that they (relatives) have accepted them wholeheartedly so they could live the life they truly deserve as free individuals.
Photos taken by PJI photographers for People’s Tonight
