A GIrl Named David

A Girl Named David
Written by
Jody-Lynn Reicher
Betty-Ann and Joseph Turner at the time of Betty-Ann’s fourth full term pregnancy are expecting to be blessed with another boy. When a girl arrives on October 26th, 1956, Betty-Ann refuses to change the name she’s picked for her supposed fourth son. Betty-Ann feels that God betrothed her the well-deserved replacement son as a solace for having lost two of her previous infant sons. Thus, David Catherine Turner is born a girl carrying the first name opposite of the gender she is born into.
As Joseph Sr. deals with his wife’s mental illnesses. Their two surviving children, son Joseph Jr. and daughter David initially handle Betty-Ann’s illnesses well. Daughter David apparently understands her mother best. The will of the little girl to cure her mother Betty-Ann of her ills is overflowing. This is David’s mission. David thinks curing her mother is her mission from God. David begins to believe that is why she was born. Even when David’s father Joseph Sr. begins to pull away from the family after her fifth birthday in 1961. David does not fret. She prays. David’s mother confides all to David privately by age eight. Which strengthens David’s resolve in believing she was born to fix her mother’s mental illnesses.
By 1969, Joseph Sr. is no longer living at the Turner residence. In 1971 brother Joey moves out. He’s making a good living. He stays away from David and Betty-Ann. Upon this, Betty-Ann tells David that she is now the man of the house. David prays that she can live up to the task and her mother’s expectations. By age fifteen, David’s mother becomes ever more depressed. Betty-Ann’s mood swings have increased since David’s eleventh birthday.
The next time we see Joey he is at his mother’s wake. Afterwards, David is haunted at night, seeing flashes of the death of her mother. David feels like a failure. Yet, she continues to pray.
David finds out after her mother’s funeral that her father gave Betty-Ann the deed to the Turner home in 1968. In turn three weeks before Betty-Ann commits suicide, she in turn places David on the deed. As well, David becomes emancipated in early September 1972. David is now a young lady who was never a little girl.
In 1976 David is working two jobs. Three years remain on the Turner residence’s mortgage. David lives alone. She is given a career opportunity by George Zink, Carolyn Zink’s husband. Carolyn Zink was Betty-Ann’s closest friend, who hadn’t seen David since she was an infant. In the end, David discovers that compassion and love do exist even in the disharmony of mental illness within a family.