Family Changes

While my dad was seeing my mother, he brought one of his friends to my mom's house one night. My dad's friend and my oldest sister fell in love. He was much older than Linda but my mom signed for her to get married at 14 years of age. This left my mom with a 13, 9, & 4 year old's and pregnant. A book could be written on my sister Linda's life, as well as, my other siblings. I will share more about their lives later on.

My mom must have really lost it during this period after my dad stop seeing her because I was told by a relative that my mom had several boyfriends afterwards but never anyone serious. She was drinking a lot and not looking after me and her 3 other children at home. The story goes that Kathy the eldest at home would stay with her best friend's family. That left my 10 & 5 year old brothers and me. Neighbors say David my oldest brother would come in from school and change my diaper, get me a good bottle and put me in a stroller. Then David would get out of the house with Jimmy, my 5 year old brother walking beside him, and me in the stroller. David would then take us around the neighborhood for the rest of the afternoon. All this while my mom was drunk and most of the time laying in bed with whomever was her boyfriend at the time.

I hope you don't think bad of me for telling this or that I am being disrespectful to my mom's memory. I am just stating the facts. Life couldn't have been easy for my mom or my siblings. I spoke at length about this time with my mom much later in her life. I have only spoken briefly with my siblings. Each one has their own slant of the events and how they were affected. It's heartbreaking just to even think about it now for them.

Knowing what I do and knowing their future now, this was a defining time for all their lives including mine. No one in this family was left unaffected. The biggest reason for me to tell my life story and to share my family too is that our lives might be an inspiration for others first but also a warning.