LIBERTY

Carol Guzy

The Washington Post

Mariama Conteh (left) and Bintu Amara leave for the airport after saying goodbye to Catherine Webber (middle) who was in tears on the porch of their home in Staten Island. She became a surrogate mother to all the children in the extended family they had formed since arriving from Africa. She took it very hard that the girls were going so far away but was praying for them to have a good life in Michigan. The two girls moved to the home of Deannie and Clay Elliott in Ortenville Michigan who have assumed legal guardianship of Mariama. It did not work out with Bintu who moved back to NY, later to be taken in by a family in Texs.

Carol Guzy, "LIBERTY," in POYi Archive, Item #36745, http://archive.poy.org/index.php/items/show/36745 (accessed June 1, 2025).