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My mom was my biggest supporter in my education. I had special ed classes and an IEP all though out my school years until now. I realized now looking back and after reading my IEP that it was a result of the trauma I endured, and the constant moving place to place throughout my childhood. My mom graduated high school and also had a college degree in metal works from dtcc, however in her time that was consider a male's job and she was unable to get employment in that field. I am the only one out of my brother and sister to graduate high school on time in my school. My brother did his in Job Core and my sister did hers at night school.

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I married my high school sweetheart, and we were married for 9 years. We have and rase two beautiful girls together. Even though we are not married, he is still my best friend and very involved in my both mine and our girls lives.

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birth of my first daughter Layla July 2011

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birth of my first daughter Layla July 2011

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Layla made me a mommy, and this was the best day of my life. I always wanted to be mom. Layla is my little mama, tenderhearted and most caring soul you'll ever meet. She has so much compassion for others and animals.

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Birth of my second daughter Aurora Dec. 2012

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Birth of my second daughter Aurora Dec. 2012

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Aurora is my handful, red-headed spit fire that keeps me on my toes, but I wouldn't change a thing. Her confidence in life will make big changes in this world.

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First day care employment Playhouse Nursery 2002

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First day care employment Playhouse Nursery 2002

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This was my first day care job and I was an assistant in a pre k classroom. Mrs. Laura Parent was my boss and instructor. This is where I met my now boyfriend several years before we dated, his son was in my classroom. This is where I fell in love with the field. This was before I was married but after I graduated high school. At time I was living on my own and dating my husband, and we were planning our wedding.

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Early Childhood Assistant Teacher Certification Polytech Adult Education March 2008

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Early Childhood Assistant Teacher Certification Polytech Adult Education March 2008

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Early Childhood Lead Teacher Certification Polytech Adult Education Sept 2009

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Early Childhood Lead Teacher Certification Polytech Adult Education Sept 2009

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Administration of Medication, CPR and First aid Adult, Children and Infants. 

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Administration of Medication, CPR and First aid Adult, Children and Infants. 

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Divorced and Met my Current Boyfriend 2025

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Divorced and Met my Current Boyfriend 2025

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I met Larry a few years back a Playhouse Nursery when I was a teacher for his son in the pre-k class. We fell out of touch for a few years after his divorce and mine we reconned on Facebook. I am thankful that he is good to my girls and that he and their dad get along together. That we can share all major event with our kids together as if they have one big family with two dad figures to look up too

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Started an associate degree Birth to Second Grade from Delaware Technical Community Collage 2025

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Started an associate degree Birth to Second Grade from Delaware Technical Community Collage 2025

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I 'am currently attending collages classes here at Delaware Technical Community College Dover campus. I am working towards my degree for birth to 2nd grade and will be starting my 2nd semester this spring. I intend to transfer for my bachelor's degree soon after. My mom is not here to see me, but every time I walk into class, I know she is proud of me. She attended this school for metal works and graduated with a degree, these are the steps of hers I follow with honor.

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Current employment Assistant Administer at Little Kids Swagg Too June 2025 

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Current employment Assistant Administer at Little Kids Swagg Too June 2025 

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Now 2025, several years later and several day care centers in between, I am now working as an assistant administrator at Little Kids Swagg too. I have been working here for about a year now in this position. I have worked for her about three years back as a lead teacher in her pre-k room. This center services all children but mostly are low-income families. These children have my heart because I grew up in the environment they lived in, and I can relate to the troubles they face.

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I was born at Kent General Hospital. I was my mom's 3rd birth; she had all three of us back-to-back, so by the time I came my mom was well aware of the processes. My dad was drunk when I was born. He didn't tell anyone on my mom's side of the family that I was coming. The only reason why someone know this on his side was because they were watching my older brother who was one and my sister who was two years of age. Somone called my mom's parents, I do not recall who called and they came about 2 hours after I was born to see me.

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My dad was in and out of my early years. I only have three memories of him and one of them was from a story I was told from my grandmother; one was at a store, and the last was when I was in Jr high, when my grandfather passes away.

1. I was a baby and at the time we were staying at my grandma's house. He came over to hold me, but he couldn't even hold his drink without spilling it. My grandma wouldn't let him take me and it became a huge fight, and my grandfather chased him off.

2. I was in a toy store, my dad tied a balloon around my wrist as his way to keep track of where I was, he would look for the balloon (that was a fight later with my mom when she found out). I didn't understand why they was fighting I liked my balloon. He told me in the store I could get whatever I wanted in the store. I wanted a doll on the top shelf, I couldn't reach it and was too scared of my dad to ask for it. I do not think my dad ever hurt us, it was more of stranger scared, I didn't know him. So, I took home a clown doll that I could reach. I was special to me for a long time because that was the last time I saw him, until years later.

3. The summer before my grandfather passed away my dad wanted to spend with my brother in FL, and he paid for my brother to come see him. I hated my dad for that, why didn't he want me? When he brought my brother home to for my grandfather's furnal, I wasn't going to see him, but my mom made me at least say hi. When I saw him, a week-old drunk man, I didn't hate him, I pity him. I forgave him. I forgave him for not being here, for the abuse we suffered because he wasn't part of our lives. I didn't tell him that, I just did in my heart, and it was the last time I saw him.

My dad was murdered the year my 2nd child was born. He was beaten to death in Albuquerque New Mexio.

All the years my dad was not in my life, my mom never stopped me from reaching out to him or trying too. A lot of times I would get his parents or his brother Uncle Rufus. I am thankful to my mom always supporting me and being there for me after the rejection, looking back as a parent myself now I know that had to have been hard on her. I am thankful she made me see him that last time.

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I do not remember this time. I am listing it because this is where my dad's family lives. I was born in DE, and within the first year of my life my mom moved with my dad to FL, to be next to his family. My dad also left us in FL, and my grandfather on my mom's side flew into FL and brought us back home to DE. This was also my first time on an airplane. Within the first year of my life, I went from living in DE, to living in FL, back to DE before I was even two years old. This is the start of my life pattern; my mom (we) moved a lot.

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My parents were married when she had me and my siblings. I am not sure when they got married, I think she was only 19 or 20 years old. They were divorced very close to after I was born and around the time we were living in a motel in Smyrna. Based off that information my uncle Rufus believes it was around 1985. There wedding and divorce was both in Delaware. My parents were very young, and my dad didn't want to settle. He was a heavy drinker and into drugs, my mom wanted no parts of that. All that lead to the divorce.

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John chased my mom, my brother and myself around the liquor store with a shot gun as we hid behind the counter. I do not remember my sister being there, she may have been living with my grandmother at that time. I was very young, and mom played it off as a game of hide and seek. I remember feeling excited for the game but then having this huge amount of fear taking over me. I remember seeing the lights out the window and feeling the excitant of the pretty light. The lights were the police cars as they arrested him and took to jail although didn't make sense to me because he was back with us again. I found out later in life from my grandmother that my mom dropped charges and believe he'd change. That was not the case. I have a later memory of him trying to break my mom's legs. I was very scared, and my mom told me they were wrestling around but I knew that was not right. We left after that night.

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All 3 of us blocked him out and time with him. I will never bring his name up to my mom when she was alive. This name still gives me the worst feeling inside and I do not want to recover memories.

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Tom - 2nd Time in Living in Florida 90's

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Tom - 2nd Time in Living in Florida 90's

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My mom followed Tom to Fl. This is where I went to the movie theater for the first time we saw Drop Dead Fred, it came out in the 90's so we are going to go with that time frame. My sister didn't live with us the whole time there. I do not know why, or when she got there, but I am glad she did at the end. I remember playing the "paper game" only me and my brother had to do it. It is where you held out your hands and held a piece of paper for long periods of time. Sounds simple but after a while your hands get tried and that paper gets heavy. If you drop it, you had to start all over again. If you drop it too many times bad things happened to you. the "bad things" always changed and each time it was worse than the last. I blocked most of this out, but I remember the fear of dropping still to this day. This only happened when my mom went to work. Tom would make my brother stand in front of a fan so of course his would blow off and fall. I remember one time my brother was beat with a paddle with holes in it so hard that he had circles welts and bruising over his back and bottom. Me and my brother were too scared to say anything to our mom, so our sister did and that is when mom left Tom. That night we got up and sneaked out, I was upset we could bring my barbie car with me, I didn't understand she was running for our safety that night. We lived in the car until my mom was able to get us back to DE and this time we drove back. To me that was a lot of fun, riding and sleeping in the car.

While in Fl this time I remember going to Wet and Wild water park. This was just a girl's day me, my sister and our mom. My brother was not allowed, he was in trouble over the paper game. I found out years later though family counseling that is when the unthinkable happed to my brother. I will not go into details that is his story. I still feel guilt to this day, what while I was out having fun, he was enduring that. I know as kid I had no control.

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Shorty, my mom, my brother and me Christmas Day 

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My mom was with Shorty for a long time. We moved with him a few different places; my memories are in heartly trailer park and Willow Grove. In Heartly we had a normal family to me, I thought my mom found a good step daddy for us. I found out later in life he was abusive towards my brother then. When we moved to Willow grove is when I started getting the treatment. Shorty was a lumberman, and Tree fell on him causing him to not be able to take care of himself and my brother to help him. So, Shorty redirected the abuse on me. I remember hiding in a closet and using a coat hanger to defend myself and because of his new disability he was unable to reach me. I felt victorious.

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Skip was an alcoholic. When sober was a good man, but when he drank the vodka, he was verbally abusive and throw things or break things. As far as I am aware of he never physical hurt any of us. Out of all my mom past boyfriends this is the one that comes closest to being like a father too me. I stared my flow when home alone with him and in a now pervert was there for me. He went out and got what I needed from the store. The point of saying this is that I felt I could trust him when I was scared and nervous. Because of the drinking him and mom broke up and he lost everything his including his house. He went to rehab and eventually cleaned up his life. My brother was able to track down everyone other than Tim and face his demons. As a result of that Skip reached out to me to apologize for his drinking and behavior. He told me, I felt like a real daughter to him. This gave me peace. My sister lived with us some of the time while with Skip but not all the time.

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My grandmother and grandfather. My grandma is giving me an envelope with seeds that we were going to plant.

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My grandfather passing was major moment in my life. He was my safe place, my unchanging, my father, and my home. He protected me and us. When my mom would break away and leave the men in her life we moved in with my grandparents. I remember many times he would chase them away with his shot gun. I knew when we were there, we were safe all of us. We spent all the holidays at my grandparents' house. I spend summers and weekends there. I would go to the back barns with him and watch him work on old cars listening to old music and I would eat off the walnut tree. I felt safe. My grandfather would always have family dinners at the table and in the kitchen is where he taught me how to tie my shoes. I made him an ash tray out of clay in school, and he was so proud of me, he used it every day.

When he passed, I remember sitting on the swing in the yard and thinking who is going to protect us now? My whole life changed, I no longer felt safe and we my mom, brother and I were alone.

My Grandma could no longer care for my sister alone and this is the time my sister moved in with us. Even still I never felt like she was one of us.

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Charles on the left my brother on the right 

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Charles was the first of the men my mom dated that was not abusive. At this time, I was in high school. We live in Kent Wood estate. Charles was fun, he took us fishing, we did family game nights, his friends had kids our age and they came over and we had sleep overs. I was able to bring my friends to the house and was not scared for me or them. One night I had a night terror, I woke up screaming and Charles ran to room with a chair he grabbed on the way across the trailer, and he was ready to attack whoever was hurting me. This is the first time, other than my grandfather where a man protected me and not harm me. My mom and him did not work, not sure why but he did help us get on our own and they remained friends until her passing.

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My senior year of high school, I had my own trailer. Just down from Charles in the same park. My mom met another man name Larry, and he was good to her. They ended up getting engaged and she was with him until she passed. Since my mom had a history of men as you can tell I decided to not to move in with her and Larry just to be on the safe side, so I had my own place. While in high school I kept my grades up, worked at Mcdonal's, I walked to work, and I walked to the dart bus for school. I was happy on my own, my mom was happy with Larry, my brother joined the Army, and my sister was living with her than husband.

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Unlock Your Potential, Transform Your Future Are you ready to take the next step in your career journey? At Polytech Adult Education, we empower individuals to reach new heights through […]

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Home | Delaware Technical Community College

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Delaware Technical Community College is a statewide institution of higher education, providing academic, technical, and workforce training opportunities. Offering over 100 degree programs.

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Hello, my name is Ercia, and this is a timeline of some of my life events from childhood to present day. Most of my childhood are fragments or more like feelings then actual events. I do not have any baby books or scrap books and most of what my mom had was lost during all the moving we did. Most of my family is passed away leaving little to whom I can talk too about my childhood. My sister and I do not communicate much due to the lack of relationship built between us. She mostly lived with my grandparents as for me and my brother lived with my mom. My mom did the best she could as a single parent and for what you'll about to read, I want you to understand I do not blame her. When she realized what was going on she put us children first and left for our safety.

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Now I am 41 years old and a mom of two teenage girls. I gave them a life that I did not have, a steady loving environment. Even though their dad and I did not work out as a couple we are great friends and do everything together with the children. Birthday's, holidays, family trips, recitals and special occasions we do them all together including my boyfriend who is also great with the girls. I am attending collage to get my degree to work in kindergarten and my girls are very supportive of me. I am working as an administrator in a childcare setting of low-income families, and I can relate with the children because most of my homes were section 8 as well growing up. I am still hunted at night from my childhood, but I look at how happy my girls are, and I know broke a cycle.