Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Deborah Canty, 2015Biographical NoteDeborah Canty was born in Sanford, North Carolina in 1954. While she was in elementary school, she moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. Canty suffered childhood trauma, and began drinking to cope as a teenager. In 1974, she married a corrections officer, and they moved to South Carolina. He became abusive, though, and she left him in 1977. She received her GED in 1978, and her daughter was born in 1980. In 1995, her grandson was born and her mother died. In 2002, she decided to get sober, joining Alcoholics Anonymous and entering rehab for eighteen months. Following a conflict with her daughter, she became homeless. She first went to the Brooklyn Women's Shelter, then to New Providence Shelter in Manhattan. There she connected with the Life and Faith Sharing group (LEFSA) and the Education Outreach Program of New York Catholic Charities (EOP). She began working at LEFSA and graduated from the EOP in 2005. Through an organization called Services for the Underserved, she was able to get an SRO apartment
Scope and ContentsIn this interview Deborah Canty shares her life story with particular attention paid to trauma, recovery, and faith. Many themes and stories recur across the interview's two sessions. She recalls her youth in Sanford, North Carolina: memories of her grandmother and other family, the small town and rural environment, and her father's criminal activities. She recalls moving to Bedford-Stuyvesant and compares many aspects of Sanford and Brooklyn, including traffic, density, neighborhood safety, her mother's lifestyle, and racism. Canty was sexually abused on multiple occasions as a child and she analyzes the impact this had on her life. She discusses many dimensions of her struggles with alcoholism: starting drinking at her mother's rent parties, drinking habits during different eras, drinking to cope with trauma, and drinking with her mother. Throughout the interview she analyzes dynamics with different family members such as her mother, brothers, daughter, grandson, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. She describes the mixture of support, closeness, conflicts, and violence that characterized many of these relationships. She describes life events such as her marriage and leaving her husband, other relationships, the birth of her daughter, and the death of her mother. She describes her decision to get sober and experiences in Alcoholics Anonymous and rehab. She discusses becoming homeless, experiences in shelters, connecting with Sister Dorothy and the Life and Faith Sharing group (LEFSA), and experiences working for LEFSA. She describes her experiences with Education Outreach Program of New York Catholic Charities and considers the impacts of sharing stories. She describes her personal history with religion. Faith and forgiveness are recurring themes as she analyzes the events of her life
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by Deborah Canty. The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York hold a non-exclusive license to enable library activities
| |
