Promises to Keep
Bobby Love had twenty-two addresses by his sixteenth birthday. Fatherless at six and living in the slums, his mother was confined to a hospital for years. He and his siblings were then shuffled through state institutions, a homeless shelter and numerous foster homes. When Bob Love, the teenager, reunited with his mother and sisters in the welfare projects, they were strangers to each other, conditioned to temporary surroundings, schools, friends, and temporary parents. Nothing was ever permanent for them and they had to adjust to that too. Overcoming adversity and surviving life in the projects made Bob Love a gang leader at thirteen, a car thief at fourteen, a womanizer at fifteen, and living on his own at seventeen. No one expected a boy with his background to amount to anything until a stranger showed the street fighter the formula to success. In return he had to work hard, study hard and keep a solemn promise. Robert A. Love kept that promise.