Lakeland, Fla. ? Lucille Bouges has been rearing children, hers and other people’s, for the better part of 70 years. Most everybody around here calls her “Mother.”

Bouges is 92 now and thought maybe she was finished bringing up babies.

That lasted until this past New Year’s Eve, when her 26-year-old great-granddaughter went to jail again and left a brood of six young ones without a place to live or anybody to look after them.

As she’s done so many times before, Mother Bouges stepped up. With the blessing of state social service workers — and much support from her church, charities and family — she took them in.

Six great-great-grandchildren, ages 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11. Four girls and two boys.

Up at 6 a.m. to get them ready for school. Shopping. Cooking meals. Wiping noses. Washing piles of dirty clothes. Settling arguments. Disciplining, cuddling, reassuring.

Determination

“Some people said, ‘You’re too old,'” Bouges said, sitting on the front porch of the old three-bedroom, tin-roofed house she rented recently to accommodate the family. “And I said, ‘I didn’t hear God say nothin’ about that.’ God’s happy and I’m happy, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

Grandparents raising grandchildren is certainly not an anomaly. The 2000 Census reported 2.3 million grandparents were responsible for their grandchildren in this country. But not like this.

Lucille Bouges, 92, takes care of six great-great-grandchildren, including 2-year-old Curtesha V. Hall, left, and 4-year-old Curdaisya B. Hall. Bouges, with the help of family, friends and charities, has been looking after the children since the beginning of the year.

When great-granddaughter Tabatha Worlds was arrested for the 10th time — authorities say she violated probation by having cocaine — she pleaded with Bouges to take the children and try to keep them together.

Workers from the Department of Children & Families tried to place the children with other relatives, but nobody could take all six. There was talk of splitting them up.

“Not while I’m alive,” Bouges said.

As a child, Bouges picked cotton and helped raise hogs and chickens near Fairfax, S.C. Both parents died before she was 10, and she grew up with other families. She had two children of her own, but has had a hand in rearing every generation of her family since, as well as various other children. Her husband died years ago.

Help from family, charities

She and her six little ones live on about $1,400 a month in Social Security benefits, plus food stamps. Half of the money goes for the rent on the drafty, clapboard house she was able to find in a modest Lakeland neighborhood, just east of Tampa. Her daughter helps out with the cooking and cleaning, along with other family members and friends, and tries to make sure she gets the children to school and to doctor’s appointments and such.

Charities have donated a house full of clothes, furniture, toys and other things, including a new washer and dryer and two televisions.

The children have their own beds, but they’d all rather be in hers.

“They all pile up on the bed with me like little rats,” she said with a hearty laugh.

Bouges’ health is remarkable, considering her age. She’s bothered by a little arthritis in her knees and shoulder, and her bright eyes don’t see as well as they once did, but that’s about it. People say her mind is sharp enough to do what she needs to do for the children, one of whom has a disability that requires braces on his legs.

Long-term commitment

“Her attitude is always positive,” said Ruth Olinger, whose Polk County charity, Miracle Resources, has helped out the family. “She is never depressed. I’ve never heard her complain about anything. She is so grateful that she is physically able to keep those children. Her biggest fear is that somebody will take those children and split them up.”

DCF officials declined comment on Bouges’ case, citing confidentiality laws. But a caseworker has indicated that the situation is a “long-term commitment,” regardless of what becomes of the children’s mother. Authorities say Worlds will be in custody until early next year.

Brent Elrod, statewide coordinator of the Florida Kinship Center, a University of South Florida agency that assists grandparents raising children, said he’s heard of an 83-year-old great-grandmother caring for a single child, but never a great-great-grandparent. And certainly no one as old as Bouges, with six young ones.

“I don’t have any doubt she can do it with the help she’s getting,” said DeEtte Blythe, a Kinship Center volunteer who has gotten in touch and will try to help. “She is just as bright as she can be. She’s very alert.”

As 4-year-old Curdaisya and 2-year-old Curtesha chattered and played on the sunny porch, their grandma was looking ahead with a sense of hope.

“I believe we’re going to make it,” she said.