In re the Guardianship & Custody of Jonice N.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Kassal, J.

Unlike the vast majority of parental termination cases that wend their way through our courts, the matter before us does not involve State intervention occasioned by drug addiction, alcoholism, physical or sexual abuse, or mental illness. Rather, the record establishes that, in November 1984, respondent mother, Láveme F., came to the attention of the authorities for having left her three children, John, Verona, and Jihan Ebonni, then respectively ages 10, 6, and 21 months, unsupervised for "extended periods of time”, while she worked two jobs in a valiant, if…