Somebody's Someone
A Memoir
By Regina Louise 

     Somebody's Someone is a coming-of-age novel told by Regina Louise herself. It is a moving tale of a young girl's desperate search for a family, for love, and for the basic necessities of life: food, clothing, shelter, and most of all for a purpose to live and enjoy this life. Prolific, because this book chronicles the horrors of being a child without. My heart wept for Regina throughout the entire book. The reader of this story could easily pray that she would find what she was searching for, and so much disappointment was around every page, yet you are still compelled to find out the plight of Regina. This child could easily be the poster child for every state and local Department of Children and Family Services office.

     The story chronicles the life of Regina from the age of four to thirteen, starting with living in South Austin, Texas through a journey to California. She very rarely stayed any time with her natural mother or her natural father; she was tossed here and there, like a leaf helpless in the wind. When she came to know herself, she stayed with Big Mama, who willingly took in children for money. It becomes apparent in the reading that money was Big Mama's primary objective, for she had taken in Regina's mom Ruby at an early age and the proceeded to take in both Regina and her older sister Doretha. Doretha, being five years older and thus five years wiser than Regina, quickly realized that Ruby wasn't interested in the sisters, and that a reunion to that end wasn't going to happen. Regina continued to hope. Abuse was rampant in Big Mama's house and finally, after numerous escape attempts, Regina was allowed to travel to Ruby.

     Things weren't much better at Ruby's house, thanks to Mr. Benny and the general lack of concern that Ruby had for her children. By this time Regina had two little terrors--oops I mean brothers--to contend with and things were going from bad to worse. Did nobody want Regina? Finally, after a fiasco with Doretha, it became crystal clear that Ruby wasn't going to be the mother Regina had dreamed about. Soon afterward she was sent to California to reside with her father's wife. Certainly things were no better in this situation, and this child continued to be a victim of a system designed to help.

     This isn't a happy story, but one that I think every adolescent social worker should read before starting day one of work. Told from a first person account, who wouldn't be moved by reading and feeling the plight of a child who wanted most of all to be Somebody's Someone.