My Teratogen

Funny how some people see the glass as half full (perfect family of a mom, dad, and children by the same partners) while others see the glass as half empty. That half empty glass was my take on our family. My mom and dad have been married now for almost 43 years. I’m the oldest of three and the only girl. My father came from a family of a mom, dad, and 10 siblings; my mother, a mom, dad and 9 siblings. My father is 9 1/2 years older than my mother. They met when he was 25 and she was 16. They had me when he was 27 and she was 19.

My dad was an excellent provider, retired now after working 34 years as a welder. Great pension. My mom was a housewife for a while, taking on night shift jobs here and there between night school. It wasn’t until I was 11 that she began working at the USPS and has since retired.

My dad’s thought, from how he was raised, was that you work hard…and get to play hard. According to my mother, he was a womanizer, a gambler and such, but the two things I knew him as were my daddy (total daddy’s girl) and an alcoholic. He could come home at 5:30am from a nights binge, but would get up on time to be out of the door by 6:30AM sharp, every day for 34 years. My mom, would get the brunt of his consequences; me and my brothers though would have to deal with much more.

During the time of my mother “finding herself”, leaving me and my brothers alone with me being in charge, neighbors kids or cousins taking care of us, I became the victim of a four year molestation by one cousin and a neighbor.

Now that I am older, reborn through Christ, and many sessions of various therapies, I can see the glass half full…because I am in control of my choices and what happens to me.