EXTENSIONS INTO A WRITER'S MIND

Hi, my name is Kathy, and

I love writing, creating, painting life with words.

But of all the things I love, I love my family most.

Now as some of you may know, I was a foster child/a ward of the state of Virginia.

But you don't know why. So I thought that I might share a little more about my life,

in order for you to get to know me a little better. So in a nut shell, this is my story.

The photo above is with our parents, it was taken in 1959 just before my first birthday,

 back when life was uncomplicated, and unspoiled.

The young girl standing, is my sister Debbie, our father is holding me.

Shortly after this photo was taken, our parents divorced. And both remarried.

I don't remember ever living with my father, or having any sort of relationship with him.

But our stepfather was an alcoholic,

and one of the meanest men ever put on the face of the earth.

However, my story revolves around my sister.

You know sometimes life is really cruel, as my sister and I soon discovered

after going to live with our grandmother,( our Mother's, mother).

Well grandmother had a son, and before he was drafted into the war,

he liked to creep into our room at night while we slept.

For two scared little girls, night quickly became a battle ground of living nightmares.

It was worse than living with our stepfather, enduring his beatings,

and all his malicious forms of torture. Our uncle, had him beat by a long shot.

He sexually abused us from the time just before I started school,

 until just before Debbie was 14 years old.

However, his abuse of her was far worse than anything he ever did to me.

Many times Debbie tried to take her own life.

And many times I would be the one to discover her,

curled up in some dark corner nearly dead from taking an overdose of pills.

Eventually our grandmother threw us away

in order to protect her son after I told Social Services what our Uncle had being doing,

 and how his abuse was why Debbie was in a treatment center for trying to kill herself.

And that my friends is why I was raised in foster care

and became a ward of the state at the tender age of 13.

In the long run, and through all the cruelty Debbie, and I were survivors.

And when we became wards of the state,

we could have quickly became victims again.

However, through the many foster homes,

being separated, loosing contact with each other for months even years at a time,

forced to be strangers, we quickly proved we would survive.

Because no matter what it takes, sooner or later we find each other,

and we are sisters again, and all the time we have been apart fades away.

Unfortunately Debbie was recently diagnosed with melanoma cancer,

and although we talk on the phone, we haven't seen each other for a long, long time.

 But I will be making a surprise trip to see her very soon.

Cancer can't have her, she will survive it too.

She has to, she's my sister, and I love her with my whole heart.

Besides she, and I are survivors!

MEET MY GIRLS