JUDY LEE ROSS
Howard County Detention Center
Medical Department
Jessup MD
January 29, 2002
Letter of Farewell
Dear Inmates:
I guess that you have heard by now that I am leaving the Center and today is my last day so I hope that this letter will help say 'goodbye' for me.
A Poem for the Inmates
When I once was imprisoned, but there were no visible walls
I looked around me, and saw no one! Only to see that I was not tall!
I was not big enough or great enough or strong enough to break through
these invisible walls.
I tried to hide behind them! You know them, too, by name.
Games that people play. Blame. Scheme but call it a 'team'.
Look cool but life wasn't hot! It left me out, I shouted out!
It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. But look at what I missed!
It was all about 'me'! Then one day, a preacher man told me...the truth will set me free!
So simple: just call the walls by name, ask God to remove them...and
be free to become that person God intended (me) to be!
So many years of my ways had to be set straight...too many crooked paths.
The more that I gave Him; I had nothing to lose!
He made me a new life; gave me the freedom to choose!
The old life (which I did not like); or the new life with Him.
I choose the latter! And I am so glad....because now I'm not in charge
He is! And what you see in me is what God made. And I am
thankful that His task is not finished....and that's why I am going ..
where there is more work for us to do!
Goodbye for now....and may God's peace abound with you in these walls...as
He sets you free in your heart....if you ask Him....like the preacher man told me.
Always,