Trying to make it work

Hoops Fest 15
What: A skills competition that brings together Prince William County's best boys and girls high school basketball players to compete in the 3-point shootout, the 2-ball competition and the slam dunk
Where: Gar-Field High School
When: Saturday, April 10, 2 p.m. (doors open at 1 p.m.)
Admission: $10. All proceeds go to this year's charity recipient. There is no presale for tickets.
Charity recipient: The Johnson Family of Woodbridge

The thought of going back to college troubles Lynn Johnson.

She’s 45 years old and not even remotely fond of computers. She frets about fitting in among students half her age, and she wonders if she might be pursuing something foolish with 10 children — ages 4 to 19 — to look after.

But Lynn wants to start her own business, and an associate’s degree from Northern Virginia Community College is the first step.

“I’m scared,” she said. “I haven’t been to school in a long time. But having my own business is one thing I really want to do. I’m just not sure how to go about it.”

Mainly, she is thinking about her children and their future. Lynn has done her best to raise them, offering them a “moral compass” and a safe haven from the dangers of alcohol, drugs and violence.

But she doesn’t want them to have to settle for thrift store clothes and food stamps, or to arrive home each day wondering if the bank has put a foreclosure sign in the front lawn.

“I just want them to be in a better position than I am,” said Lynn, whose family will benefit from money raised at Hoops Fest XV. The News & Messenger’s annual high school basketball charity event will be held this year on April 10, at Gar-Field High School.

Lynn has always encouraged her children — Romani (19), Marcus, (17), Kata (15), Tevana (14), Javante (12), Rezy (10), Chiya (9), Jordano (8), Kaja (6), and Chio (4) — to work hard in school.

She is now determined to follow her own advice by continuing her education — even as she’s attempting to work out financing for five months’ worth of overdue mortgage payments.

“I just want to do something that will maybe get my mind going,” she said. “I want to help by doing something.”

When her youngest child begins school at Dale City Elementary in the fall, Lynn will have an entire five-bedroom home to herself for the first time in two decades.

After all those years of raising a family, most of the time as a single mother, she is accustomed to the chaos and drama that often accompanies kids through the doorway.

And she cherishes it, especially now that she has reunited with her husband, Willie, after a 14-year separation.

In the span of five minutes she might heat up some macaroni and cheese for dinner, console a daughter who had her yo-yo stolen at school and then bask in the glow of another perfect exam paper.

“I am very protective of my kids,” she said. “Any mother knows that two kids are just like 10. It’s different numbers, but kids are kids. They are going get into stuff.

“What I try to accomplish is that when I turn my back, they’ll do the right thing. I just try to give them the rules and the morals and try to teach them right from wrong. I want my kids to feel bad when they do something wrong. I tell them I can’t watch them 24/7.”

FOR BETTER OR WORSE

Lynn fancies herself an old-fashioned mother, one who prefers summer kickball games over PlayStation 2 and who believes that two parents should share equally in the raising of a family.

“I just feel that the kids are going to benefit from having a mother and a father in the home,” she said.

It took much longer than she’d ever hoped to experience that type of unity, but her entire family is finally back together again and, for better or worse, that seems to matter most.

“We’re trying every way we can to make it work,” she said.

Some days are harder than others.

The Johnsons haven’t made a mortgage payment since October on the Dale City home they moved into last summer.

It’s not that they haven’t tried. Life just seems to keep getting in the way.

The water bill alone averages $400 a month and recently the washing machine and dryer both conspired against them, breaking down within weeks of each other.

“When the washing machine broke, I told my husband, ‘We can’t keep the kids home. They can’t miss school, and I’m not going to send them embarrassed to school. We have to get a new washing machine. I don’t care what you have to do.’

“Then the dryer broke, and we need a dryer.”

After that, it was the engine in Willie’s truck — the one he uses to commute to Baltimore during the week.

“Right now, he’s driving his dad’s truck,” Lynn said.

Every day, she wonders what might happen next. She considers how to stretch the salary Willie makes for delivering scaffolding material to construction sites into enough money to allow them to keep a roof over their heads.

Wells Fargo has agreed to a reprieve of sorts that will permit the Johnsons to pay $900 a month through June rather than the $1,200 they owe.

“I don’t care what bills we have to forego,” Lynn said. “If we don’t prove to these people that we can send $900, we’re going to be out on the street. I’ve never been homeless, and I don’t want to experience it. I don’t want my kids to experience it.”

NEW BEGINNNINGS

Lynn told her kids when they left Pittsburgh in July that it would be their last move.

She wants to keep that promise.

Despite their financial concerns, this is the happiest she’s been since 1990, when she married Willie on Oct. 20 and gave birth to her first daughter, Romani, a few days later.

The years in between have been more challenging, beginning with the near-breakup of her marriage and, recently, the death of her mother and a sister.

“It was supposed to be a happy time, but it was hard,” Lynn said.

Separating her children from their father was among the most difficult decisions she’s ever had to make, especially since Lynn was pregnant with Tevana when she left for Pennsylvania in 1995.

“We tried to make it work, but I was miserable. I was basically raising the kids by myself, and I was tired,” she said.

“To be honest, I was just miserable. He was always out on the weekends and I was trying to tell him, ‘I understand you need your breaks, but I need my breaks too.’ He was just living like a single man even though we had three kids and I was pregnant. He just didn’t get it, so I told him I was going home to where I felt people loved me, and that’s what I did.”

As odd as it sounds, being five hours — and a couple of states — apart actually wound up saving the marriage.

Javante, Rezy, Chiya, Jordano, Kaja and Chio were each born during the 14 years when Lynn lived in Pittsburgh.

Now they can spend time with their father every night.

“It didn’t happen overnight. Over the years, we worked it out,” she said. “I think over time he grew up and that’s what he needed to do.

“I’ve never had another man around my kids, never. That’s just not the way it was going to work. I married him, period. He was the only man around our house. Just because we were separated didn’t mean he couldn’t come visit. He just had to straighten up and get it together.”

Even during the toughest times, Lynn held it together for the sake of her children and waited for a day when the family could start over again.

“I have to take care of the kids. I can’t let them see me worry,” she said. “When I was in Pennsylvania, I’d go downstairs and turn on the washing machine so my kids wouldn’t hear me crying.”

It’s easier to smile now. Lynn lights up like a firefly when she speaks about how her children have adapted to Virginia.

Tevana, who will be a freshman in the fall, has been accepted into the International Baccalaureate program at Gar-Field, while Chiya is in the scholars program at Dale City Elementary.

Marcus was named the MVP of his school’s basketball team, and Romini just got a job with the U.S. Census Bureau.

“I can’t imagine my life without any one of my children,” Lynn said. “To be honest, we don’t get to do anything. We don’t have the Internet. We’ve never had a vacation. We don’t do any crazy spending.

“We get hand-me-downs from thrift shops, we go to lower-priced stores to buy food. We don’t even go to the movies. But right now, we’re still in the house. Maybe I was foolish, dreamy. I don’t know. I just kept saying, ‘Don’t worry, something will work out.’ We may not have everything we want, but the family is together.

“A lot of people have less.”

Staff writer Dave Utnik can be reached at 703-530-3914.