Mimose Martial loves to fill her Miami Shores home with music. Every day, she serenades her grandchildren — 3-year-old Yahwe, and 2-year-old twins Yeshousa and Samson — with Creole and French songs.
“Cha, cha, cha!” the three toddlers chant back at their grandmother.
Martial, a 75-year-old widow, has been the full-time guardian of the three boys, all her incarcerated son’s children, for a little over a year. Her days revolve around preparing food for them, grooming them, playing with them, and taking care of them.
“They make me happy. They say ‘Mommy, Mommy, I love you’ and come kiss me,” Martial said, laughing. Martial is also the full-time caretaker of her 32-year-old daughter Marie, who has Down syndrome and is a wheelchair user.
Wilna Similien, a social worker at the North Miami Foundation for Senior Citizens, emphasized the patience that Martial has with the toddlers, who love to climb her arms and legs. Similien admires how the young children listen to their grandmother, and how they quickly put away their toys when she asks them to.