HELPING ORPHAN SETTLE INTO A NEW HOME

The Neediest Cases

"But problems began to surface. Born addicted to crack cocaine, Steven
was often jumpy, suffered from severe mood swings and banged his head
at night."

As she lay in bed dying of cancer, Verna Peebles's sister asked for
one last thing: that Ms. Peebles raise her 7-year-old grandson.

Ms. Peebles, 58, had already raised four children of her own -- her
oldest is 38, her youngest 28 -- but on Dec. 9, 1998, she waited for
the car that would bring Steven Branch, her grandnephew, from Norfolk,
Va., to her home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

"The night he came, he cried a lot," Ms. Peebles said in a recent
interview. "He wanted to come, but then he didn't want to come."

Steven's grandmother had raised him since he was only a few months
old. His mother had dropped him off one day for a few hours of
baby-sitting, but had never come back to pick him up.

When Steven arrived in New York, Ms. Peebles showed him some sights of
the city, like downtown Brooklyn, Macy's and Grand Central Terminal.
Like many boys his age, he was fascinated by the way people travel in
New York. "I love the city," he said. "It has buses and trains." Ms.
Peebles enrolled him in school and set about getting to know her
grandnephew. "It was a big change," she said. "Before, I didn't really
have anything to do. But it was a good change."

But problems began to surface. Born addicted to crack cocaine, Steven
was often jumpy, suffered from severe mood swings and banged his head
at night. His teacher began calling daily, saying that Steven acted
out in class and cursed at his fellow students. "She told me I had my
hands full," Ms. Peebles said, "but I knew that."

The teacher put Ms. Peebles in touch with the Bedford-Stuyvesant
Family Center, one of two such centers run by the Brooklyn Bureau of
Community Service. The Brooklyn Bureau is one of the seven local
charities supported by the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Laurel
Stanley Glynn, a social worker at the center, set up family therapy
sessions for Steven and Ms. Peebles to see how they were relating to
each other and how Steven's entry into Ms. Peebles's life was
affecting her.

Ms. Peebles says she values the sessions, which have helped her to
understand the problems associated with children born addicted to
drugs and have given her someone to talk to about her grandnephew. In
individual sessions, Ms. Glynn has Steven use pictures and puppets to
act out his feelings. "The focus there is on his loss and grief," Ms.
Glynn said. "Children are better able to vocalize and get their
feelings out in play therapy."

The arrival of her grandnephew had also put a financial strain on Ms.
Peebles, whose only source of income is federal Supplemental Security
Income, a form of assistance for poor Americans with disabilities. The
family center used $400 out of money it received from the Neediest
Cases Fund to buy Steven some school clothes, a winter jacket, new
shoes and a few toys.

Steven had begun to show signs of improvement at school, but Ms. Glynn
suspected that his acting out was a result of his being placed in an
inappropriate grade. Steven had not attended school regularly in
Virginia, and although he could not read or write, he had been
assigned to the second grade.

"He really didn't understand what was going on," Ms. Glynn said. "The
material was way above his head." Testing by the Board of Education
revealed that Steven's skill level was that of a kindergartner. The
school then moved him to special-education classes, and the family
center provided him with tutoring.

At home, Ms. Peebles helps Steven practice writing the alphabet during
her own tutoring sessions with him, but takes time out for breaks. "We
just have fun," she said, laughing. "Sometimes, you'd think there were
three or four people in the house."