Child Abuse Story From Hallee

by Hallee
(Location Undisclosed)

I should start with a bit of background information. My parents were very young when they had my brother. My mother had just graduated high school and my father had graduated the year before. They were both not ready to become parents. Then after the birth of my brother they had two more children, myself and my sister.

I can't really pinpoint a certain age that the abuse started. Though, I can remember one specific thing when I was 3. My father kicked me in the stomach for getting crayon marks on the floor.

He was a drunk. He had been for a long time. He was a very well hidden drunk. Everyone around us found him very charming and appealing and thought that he was a wonderful father to all three of his children.

He only beat my older brother and I. He never laid a violent hand on my younger sister. This has caused friction in me and my brother's relationship with her. She was always perceived as the "perfect" child. Both my brother and I were accidents but she was planned. She was everything that they wanted in a child and we were useless in my father's eyes.

My mother never hit us but she never stopped my father either. This hurt more than the actual abuse. When the yelling and hitting started, she would take my sister and go sit in my parents' bedroom. It was like she was turning her back on her own children.

After a very stressful 10 years, my parents' marriage failed. My mother did the best possible thing and sent my brother and I to live with our grandparents while everything got settled. For that I will always be grateful because she probably saved our lives.

After the divorce, my mother and sister also moved in with our grandparents. We continued to see our father every other weekend and the beatings continued.

Both my mother and my father got remarried around the same time. I adopted 3 new step brothers and 2 new step sisters. We moved out of my grandparents' house and moved in with my mom's new husband. He treated us wonderfully (and still does) and I will forever be thankful to him for that.

By the time I reached age 13 I was done. My brother and I both became estranged from my violent father and ceased talking to him for 2 and a half years.

He took this as a blow and I guess he saw some sort of light. He cleaned himself up. It took about a year for him to stop drinking. I decided to start seeing him again (my brother still refused to even mention him).

I slowly brought my father back into my life. Now at the age of 21 years old, I have completely forgiven him and have a fair relationship with him. I have gone through counselling and accepted what he had done to me.

My brother is a different story. At the age of 20, after years of suffering an internal battle with himself, he took his life. In his suicide note he left these words for me: "I can't do what you did and I can't do this."

No one but me will ever understand how true those words are and I will forever cherish my brother and his life.

R.I.P Harrison

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