Emma Patterson and her husband split in the ‘80s, leaving her with the only career she knew: caring for kids.
“I had been married quite a long time, and I was sort of trying to find my way because I didn’t really have a career,” she tells TODAY.com in an interview.
“I’d been a housewife ... and I just started taking care of kids,” she adds.
The 88-year-old has fostered more than 40 children in Montgomery County, Maryland, over the last four decades. She is likely one of the longest-serving foster parents in the county and among those who have hosted the most kids, a county spokesperson confirmed to TODAY.com.
Patterson has picked up newborns at the hospital, cared for multiple siblings and housed teenage parents and their babies throughout her career, she says. She has stayed in touch with many of them over the years.
“Trust me, it was not for the money, because they don’t give you that much money to take care of these kids,” she says. “The best part of everything is all of my children have turned out to be absolutely fantastic.”
She currently cares for one teenager who is graduating from high school this year.
With that one out the door, Patterson is retiring with thanks. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich presented her with an award May 31 in recognition of her decades of service.
“For them to recognize me in the way that they have, it has just touched my heart,” Patterson says.
“Every time I think about it makes me want to cry, because I didn’t do something because I thought anybody paid any attention to it,” she adds. “This was just something that I felt I wanted to do.”
Patterson has two biological children and says helping their friends in need led to her becoming a foster parent.
“For whatever reason, my children always thought that I could fix the problem,” she says. “It really started with some of my children’s friends not really being taken care of. My children would bring them home and I would just try to give them something to eat and let them have a place to stay. I would just do the best I could to help them a little bit.”
That turned into formally becoming a foster parent. Her kids grew up to become business owners, basketball players and “just wonderful humans,” Patterson says.
She says their success is a testament to how she approached fostering.
“When they say ‘Foster parenting,’ it’s the parenting part, not that foster part, that’s important to say. That parenting part, you have to really put 365 days into it, 24 hours a day. You have to really try to be there 100% for the kids, because the kids, most of them, would not be in foster care if it wasn’t something traumatic and bad that happened,” she says.
Patterson grew up with loving parents and three siblings herself, so she knew what kind of home she wanted to create for her kids.
“I was raised in a family where every day I knew somebody loved me,” she says. “I knew somebody cared about me. If you can be raised in an environment where somebody just really loves you and truly cares about you and is just kind to you, I think that that means more than anything else.”
Patterson says she treasures her fostering experience.
“It was God’s gift that I had the honor to be able to take care of those children,” she says.
“I’m very thankful,” she adds. “I have no money in the bank. I don’t have nothing, you know, but I feel that in my heart it’s something that I can just take to my grave with me.”
