When I try to remember my past, it becomes a blur, an image with a filter, similar to a night you can't remember after drinking yourself into a coma. When I try, I get bits and pieces: meeting my best friend for the first time, scaring the other kids with my girl gang back in middle school, visiting my parents every Friday as per the arrangement when I was placed into foster care. There are so many memories, but for some reason, I can't seem to remember what I want to: like how my parents took care of us kids or how everything became such a mess after the incident on my sixth birthday.
Of course, I can remember the things I don't want to, clear and vivid in my mind like a cloudless sky at night, with the full moon and stars shining brightly overhead. Things I have overcome to get where I am today; things I had to think deeply upon in order to forgive and move on with my life. Forgiven, but not forgotten as they say...
I apologize ahead of time. My story is one among millions, one among so many individuals who have suffered much worse than I will be telling here. My story will also be pretty graphic, as it is based on a harsh reality that the light of day barely sheds upon. I apologize to those who have suffered, like me. If this story brings back bad memories, forgotten pain and tears from a heart that was broken but healed slowly with time; I am sorry. I just want the world to see us. Not as victims, but as survivors of a cruel fate. I want us all to be heard: men, women, children, even babies; I want to share my story in the hopes of encouraging everyone to speak up, don't remain silent and forgotten. Don't be a victim waiting to be saved, help will come as soon as you make yourself heard. Speak up and don't be afraid! I did, and I am now in a better place because of it.
I also wish to thank all those who have supported me through this rough transition: my counselor Leslie Rice, my SOS (Serve Our Youth) mentor and friend Deborah Hansel, my DHS (Department of Human Services) worker Julie Fisher, my best friend Edward, my family and friends. Thank you all for helping me through this. Without you, I wouldn't be who I am today. THANK YOU!
-Graceland Marie Herald
YOU ARE READING
Saving Grace
Fiksi UmumGrace Herald was happy: she had a home, a family who loved her and friends who always stood by her side; until the year she turned six-then everything went wrong. A sick, twisted kind of love is discovered; a parent's duty to protect their child is...
