"FAREWELL"
Mariama Conteh (left) and Bintu Amara leave for the
airport after saying goodbye to Catherine Webber (middle) who was in tears on
the porch of their home in Staten Island. She became a surrogate mother to
all the children in the extended family they had formed since arriving from
Africa. She took it very hard that the girls were going so far away but was
praying for them to have a good life in Michigan. The two girls moved to the
home of Deannie and Clay Elliott in Ortenville Michigan who have assumed legal
guardianship of Mariama. It did not work out with Bintu who moved back to NY,
later to be taken in by a family in Texs.