THE bond between a mother and her child usually begins at birth, but 27-year-old Keisha Brissette did not experience this special connection until she met Charmine Johnson-Garwood who accepted her into her family at 12 years old.

The two had no prior knowledge of each other before then, but were both brought together out of their individual needs. Keisha, then a first former at the Cambridge High School in St James, was in need of financial assistance, and Johnson-Garwood was in search of a young girl whose life she could change.

"I had gone to the school and asked the school to select someone who needed help [and] could not have done without financial help," she said.

"I wanted it to be a girl, because I had gone to that school and I had gotten pregnant at age 16 and dropped out and it was very inspiring for me to be there, now that I had evolved from that situation in a positive way. I wanted to be there for young girls to kind of nurture them," she added.

Brissette was to be Johnson-Garwood's third foster child. She had fostered her first daughter at 18 years old, just two years after she lost the baby she had conceived while attending school, and a year after losing her own mother.

"I think she saw me as a troubled child," Johnson-Garwood said of her mother. "I think I had to make it up to her, even though she wasn't going to be there and I figured this was the way I could. I could reach out by making other young girls who were misguided or had low self-esteem or didn't believe in themselves. If I could be there for them, then I could make a difference that way," she said.

Now 48, she has successfully transformed her life from that misguided teenager to a notable educator, counsellor and businesswoman, who, among other things, became the regional director of the University College of the West Indies and lectures at the Sam Sharpe Teachers' College and at the University of the West Indies School of Continuing Studies. She holds a Masters degree in Human Resource Management from the Florida International University and is currently pursuing a double PhD in Clinical Psychology and Industrial/Organisational Psychology at the Alliant International University in California.

All of her foster children decided to become teachers. Brissette currently teaches Language and English Literature at Jamaica College and prides herself in being a remedial teacher. Like her foster mother, she hopes to improve the lives of as many persons as she can.

"I keep telling her, she makes it hard for me. Now I have to do well and it's kind of frustrating," said Brissette jokingly in reference to Johnson-Garwood's constant quest for self-improvement.

She was particularly grateful for the fact that her foster mother had encouraged rather than stifled her insatiable appetite for reading and poetry writing.

"When I met her, I felt as though I could do anything, but what I really wanted to do was write and so I started writing poetry. So I have poetry books all over the place. I don't keep them, I just write and they are all over the place," she said.

But last month she decided to pen one for a poetry competition being put on by Hilton Kingston Jamaica and FAME 95 FM in which she paid tribute to the woman who took the place of her mother who had left her at birth.

The poem entitled To Such A Woman was a winner and both women were treated to a weekend for two in the Prime Minister's Suite at the Hilton Kingston, along with a champagne breakfast with a server and a personal chef on Monday. They also received a spa treatment from CSW Universal Spa and a gift basket from J Wray and Nephew.

The poem not only declares Johnson-Garwood the "greatest foster mom in the world", but also conveys the extent of Brissette's gratitude towards her and begins thus, "The woman who gave me life did not give birth, but t'was she who taught me self-worth. Taught me love when I hated the world and myself, taught me pride when I lacked confidence and berated myself."

As for her birth mother, Brissette said she met her at 24, which was the first time she spoke to her. For her, it was Johnson-Garwood who took on the task of instilling confidence in her, investing in her education, teaching her life lessons and making her feel as though she belonged.

"Many foster mothers, they will contribute money, but she has contributed her time, her effort, everything. She has shaped my entire life, she was the positive role model that I needed and because of that, I can be a positive role model to the boys that I teach today," she said.

She said she was never made to feel like an unwelcomed party while growing up with her two other adopted sisters and the two sons Johnson-Garwood bore.

"We get along fine, because we gang up against her, because we are cool and young and hip and she has this way of wanting us to dress and speak and behave a certain way," she laughed, pointing out that Johnson-Garwood had forbade her to wear the purple dress she wore during the interview.

For her part Johnson-Garwood said juggling five children and pursuing her ambitions was not entirely challenging.

"It's a lot easier to raise children than most people think, and I am an unconventional mother if I should say so. I think the mothers who have greater difficulties or the parents who have greater difficulties with raising children are those who think they have to impose their whole life and dreams that they didn't accomplish onto their children," she said.

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