Elmont’s taxi-cab confessions

Debra Green, an Elmont native who still resides in the community, recently published “Taxi Rides with a Minister’s Wife” — a book that includes several anonymous, real-life anecdotes by taxi-cab patrons, and discusses hope and forgiveness through the word of God.

Green, who worked as a part-time cab driver in Elmont for the 20 years, on and off — in addition to working at a real estate office and as an Emergency Medical Technician — began writing “Taxi Rides” more than four years ago, after realizing how much she had learned from her experience as a cab driver.

The wife of Keith Green Sr., an associate minister of the Antioch Baptist Church of Hempstead — led by Rev. Dr. Phillip E. Elliott — Green said she’s always felt compelled to offer words of hope and forgiveness to those who have confided in her. As a cab driver who traveled throughout Elmont, and sometimes into the city, she said she’s listened to many stories of physical or psychological pain from sexual immorality, and has used her religious education to console them and offer advice.

“This evil spirit has taken control over people’s thoughts and actions, wounding them to the very core of their being, and creating misery and despair as a consequence,” Green said. “Working as a taxi driver … has given me the opportunity to hear the cries of a few of those people. Some of them I’ve known over the years; others I met for the very first time.”

Green, whose first husband died several years ago and was an “unstable” partner, she said, has a personal understanding of anger and pain, as well as the difficult road to forgiveness. She was inspired to write a book, she added, to help readers who might relate to the stories within it.

In “Taxi Rides,” she shares many of real-life stories — which focus on sexual morality, but also center on drug use and crime — as well as the advice that she once gave to riders. Names were changed in the book to protect residents’ identity, she said. Throughout the book, Elmont landmarks are mentioned, she added.

“You will read about how the spirit of sexual immorality has caused these people to go through some trials and tribulation sometimes beyond belief,” Green said. “I have a heart for people, especially people who are not doing too well; who are messed up in drugs … sometimes I think that some people just forget about those who are down and out, and sometimes they just need a kind word or some form of encouragement.”

In the book, when riders begin to open up to the cab driver — just as in Green’s real-life experience — she calls on the Holy Spirit, and asks for guidance.

“Taxi Rides” was published in the spring, but has continued to gain familiarity locally and nationally ever since — so much that Green was recently persuaded to write a sequel. She recently finished the sequel, “Taxi Rides with a Minister’s Wife: Stories of Confusion and Hope continues” — a continuation of “Taxi Rides” — and expects it to be published this winter.

Green, 50, grew up on Rocquette Avenue in Elmont, and now lives with her family near Jacob Street, on the south side of Hempstead Turnpike. The Greens have six children — twins Roberto and Dimetrius, Shamone, Keith Jr., Keianna and Frances.

“Taxi Rides with a Minister’s Wife” is Green’s first published book. She graduated from Nassau Community College and studied at Queens College, majoring in psychology and minoring in religious studies.

Green previously served as a member of the Elmont Fire Department, and currently serves on the evangelism ministry, prison ministry and Deaconess ministry, and is a member of the Association of Ministers’ Wives and Ministers’ Widows.