Marian’s children When he was 24, the author found his family By Steve Pemberton ’89
The author of this narrative was born Steve Klakowicz in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1967 to a mother, Marian, whom he does not remember. Removed from her by the Department of Social Services, he entered foster care at the age of three and lived with cruel and neglectful families, spending 11 years in one especially cold and violent household. It was in that home that he learned, accidentally, that his father had been a boxer of some local repute by the name of Kenny Pemberton, since murdered. And it was there also that he set himself goals—to learn about his parents, to find family, to escape a brutal situation by means of college, specifically Boston College (to which he aspired from seventh grade onward, owing to a brochure given him by a teacher). His quest for family began with a death certificate tracked down at city hall, wound through newspapers and case files, and at one key moment was abetted by a telephone operator, who, when he explained his search, helped him to locate a step-grandparent in a half-heard-of town in another state. And then he learned he had a sister and brothers.
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opposite: Marian Klakowicz, four years after her sixth and last child was born. A friend, Lois Gibbs, supplied the inscription. On the back, Marian herself wrote in a neat script: “This is a little over 4 months since my operation, and I have gained a lot of weight believe it or not. After the operation I weighed 119 lbs. In this picture I weigh 132 lbs. Quite a gain anyway, huh? But I want to gain more.” She was 34 years old. She died six years later.
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bcm v sp ring 2012
photographs: Gary Wayne Gilbert (opposite). Original images courtesy of Steve Pemberton.