Child Abuse Story From Sara
by Sara
(Texas, USA)
My mom was more strict than you can imagine. I have 3 sisters. One was 19 at the time, one 15, and my twin sister and I were 14. We were not allowed to talk on the phone. We were not allowed to have friends. When we started school, we were not allowed to go outside unless it was to get the mail. We did all the cleaning and chores around the house. My dad ALWAYS worked and was never around because of it, and my mom only cooked and made sure we were doing the right things.
It seemed like every day there was something to be mad about. If there wasn't, she would find something. This led to beating after beating after beating. Me and my sisters were only good girls because of fear, not because of choice. Studying was our only priority. We would go to school, come home, study, eat, study, take a shower, and then study until bedtime. If we didn't have homework, we would study in advance. We were not allowed to talk to each other while we were studying and we were not allowed to get up. Our mom assigned us separate rooms to make sure that happened. When we got a B on our report cards, we got beaten. My mom only wanted a grade of 95 and up. Once I got a 90 and she yelled at me.
My freshman year in high school, my mom started to lecture us about "them." We would constantly ask mom, "Who are they?" and she would always respond, "The third world." As the days went by, the lectures became longer and more frequent. Nobody ever wants to think of their mom as crazy, so we didn't. The beatings got worse.
I remember once, she started beating my sister while my sister was sleeping. She also started to do weird things around the house. We finally found out who "they" were. She was referring to the government and their conspiracies. My mom became a paranoid schizophrenic. We called the cops on her, and they took her to the mental hospital. A few days later she was released, but she refused to take her meds because she didn't think anything was wrong with her. Day after day she would put a guilt trip on me and my sisters. "I do everything to take care of you all, and in return you put me in the hospital." She told us that our dad was the devil and that she didn't trust us. She would lock herself in her room for hours. The beatings progressed. My dad ended up leaving the house and got his own apartment. A year later, we went to live with him.
Six months later, my dad was diagnosed with Hepatitis B and liver cancer, and he died.
The funeral day was the first time we saw our mom since "running away." She wanted to burn my dad's will, so she took us to his apartment to find it. We all four ran into the house and locked both locks. She stayed locked out of the apartment for 5 hours, in the heat. I remember running to one of the rooms, crying and covering my ears because I could hear her outside crying, "Annie, let me in. I love ya'll. Please let me in." The police finally came to escort her off the property. This was the last time I saw her.
Fast forward to now. After 9 years of no communication from aunts and uncles and other relatives on both sides of the family, we finally got one. My uncle from Virginia found my twin on MySpace. He emailed us every day. He told us that Mom wasn't doing well. She was homeless and nobody would take her in. She was getting beaten up by other homeless people and she got raped. We all decided to chip in money to get her an apartment, especially since winter is coming. She and my other uncle are living in an apartment that a lot of us are chipping in for. They say that so far she's behaving. I still don't have the courage to face her again yet. My Virginia uncle finally came into town on Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with us. I missed him so much; he was one of our favorite uncles. He asked us if we wanted to go to Houston to visit our grandma (Grandpa died and I didn't get to see him, so I agreed to go to see Grandma.)
My grandma is the cutest little thing now. She's lost a lot of weight, she's nicer and she kept smiling. She was so happy to see us. She's in a wheel chair. My cousin, who also lives with my grandma, is now 32 years old. I have not seen or heard from her in 15 years. I had the best time. The drive was longer than the stay. We stayed for like 2 hours, but it was worth every minute of it. I HAVE MY FAMILY NOW.
As far as my mom goes, I don't really know how to go about getting money for her. She refuses to sign any documents for benefits, like my dad's and her own retirement, because she's paranoid. If there are any suggestions as to how I can help her get benefits, please let me know.
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