Bettie Hendricks is 59 years old. As a child she never had the opportunity to enjoy School education. As a young lady she started thinking about starting her own family and that is when the importance of reading and writing made more sense. She had to see to her family and could therefore not attend evening School. She then later decided to join ABET. In her own words “My private life is now my own. I do not need to guess who I can trust with my private letters. Being charged a taxi fare for two people instead of one to go to town is now over since I can read the prices myself. Sometimes when people make a call to my house and I have to write the number down it is no longer necessary to call a child or someone else to write the number down for me. In town I don’t have to shyly ask where the shops are because I know the signs and can read how to get there. All documents I sign myself. I am no longer ashamed of making a cross because I cannot write. With my sisters death I made all the arrangements myself. Sometimes I still have to sound the words, but the words come. I don’t know everything yet but it is like a new world that opened like a donkey whose blinkers have been removed”.
