I was just a little kid. It was very hard to sit


still and those new clothes weren’t broken in yet. I couldn’t wait for them to be taken off!I had 3 foster brothers whom I always wanted to be around and still wearing the dress, I followed them to the farm. My brother Paul noticed me and took me by


the hand. He was very protective of me. And then they started to do the haystack jumps. In a haystack jump, you slide down about fifteen haystacks piled on top of each other. It was like being in the snow with a sleigh but we had a cardboard box for the haystacks. At the end, you had to jump over the mud


to the green grass. I wanted so much to do it. Paul whispered in my ear, “remember when you get down to the last haystack, don’t forget to Jump over the mud!” They should have known better. As I sat on the top, with the cardboard box under me, I was ready to take off. I could see my brothers looking anxiously at me. I took a big push. I could feel the wind in my hair. I could hear sounds in the background. “Jump! Jump over the mud,” Paul said. In that next moment, I was spread like an


eagle in the mud. All you could see of me was my white eyeballs. Everything else was dark brown and very muddy! My brothers tried to clean me up. They started arguing among themselves. “What’s Mum going to say?” Nobody wanted to take me home. So I got on my little scooter while they were bickering with each other, and I headed back home. When I got home, I knocked on the door.


My mother came to the door. Her face went pale white. “Can I help you?” she said. “Mommy, it’s me, your little Theresa.” There was silence. She was looking me up and down. All she could see were my panties and tee-shirt. The rest of the dress got caught in the back


of the wheel of my red scooter, and the whole dress had unraveled. I remember my feet never touched the ground until I got into the bathtub. That night the boys were nowhere to be found. The main event that really changed my life happened on a day that was like any other day. But something strange was going on in the village.


PHF Magazine October 2016


There was gossiping, whispering. I lay on the


top of the stairs listening for any information. When I went back to school I got the truth. My brother Paul--my favourite brother--had shot his best friend when they were hunting rabbits. Paul’s friend was dead. Of course, being only eight, this event was


going to change my life. Kids ridiculed me and called my brother a killer. They were so cruel and I came home crying a lot. Just when I thought things were settling down, my mother came to my room, brought me downstairs, not even saying a word. I remember that day so clear in my mind.


She took me and put me in the back seat of a car. Child protective services had come to take me away because of what my brother did. I sat in the back seat of the car, as I watched my mother disappear into a small speck until I could see her no more. My brother did the crime yet I was doing the time. I found myself at the doorsteps of St. Joseph’s Orphanage. The home was run by Sisters of Charity.


I


was given a bed, a side table and the belongings that I came with. We had a routine: breakfast, lunch, dinner and chores. The staff was a little hard on us. They really bullied me. I became very submissive, I had my ears boxed many times so I really tried to stay out of their way. I used to sit on my window ledge and look out at the beautiful orchard.


8


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13