The Story of Alessia Romano

The Story of Alessia Based on a true story Written by: Kendra Von Kraven

Chapter 1:

    Let me introduce you to an incredibly brave woman named, Alessia. You may wonder “Why is she known as being incredibly brave?” Well, as you read on about the story of her, you will see what we all see in her. Alessia is a young woman in her twenties. She is a mexican-italian city girl, living in the country. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Alessia, is full of life. She is a very loving, caring, smart individual. She is the type of woman who would give someone the shirt off her back, just to make sure they are okay and smiling. Alessia is the life of the party. She loves everyone equally. Lets go ahead and get into the story. We are going to talk about everything in her life that made her, well her. 

    When Alessia was being born, she was not breathing. The doctors had told her mother to just let her go, to give up. But her mother had other plans. Her mother forced the doctors to try a little harder to get her baby to breath. After about five minutes of spanking the new born baby and holding her upside down, she started breathing on her own. Alessia was a healthy 7lb 7oz baby girl. A few months after Alessia was born, Alessia’s mother had started spiraling down. Alessia started having seizures and was having a hard time growing at the right speed of time. Alessia’s mother took her to the doctors to see what was going on. They diagnosed Alessia with a seizure disorder called Epilepsy. They than put Alessia on some medication for it. However, the medication that was given to Alessia, caused her to not talk or grow at the rate she needed to. Basically it caused her to slow down on growing up even more than she was. 

    Alessia’s mom lost custody of her a year after Alessia was diagnosed with Epilepsy. Alessia’s aunt took her in and decided even though she was young, that she would raise Alessia in the meantime, to insure that Alessia could stay with family. Alessia’s aunt had taken her to the doctors when she was about two years old, and explained concern that Alessia was not growing at the right pace. She expressed to the doctors that she had no idea how a child is supposed to grow and what the pace is like for a child so young, but she knew that a two year old should be saying at least a word or two and should be crawling or walking. Alessia was not walking nor has she had her first words yet. The doctor reassured Alessia’s aunt and explained to her that the medications that Alessia was taking for Epilepsy had caused her to not talk or walk. Alessia’s aunt talked to the doctor and they both came to an agreement to take Alessia off medications and see if she had outgrown the seizures and if they could get her to start progressing in growing. 

    About a month after Alessia was off her medications, she started progressing. Alessia started walking and called her uncle “dada.” Alessia’s aunt was so excited to see that her niece was progressing finally after two years of being in the same milestone as an infant. About a month after Alessia had started progressing, her mother gained custody of her again. Alessia’s aunt raised concern to the state of Utah about Alessia’s mother gaining custody back. However, the state of Utah declared Alessia’s mother was fit enough. Alessia was being raised by her mother at the age of four. At the age of four Alessia was being abused, as she was in the care of her mother. Her mother struggled with addiction. In order for her mother to get what she needed to keep her addiction going, and keep it strong, her mother decided to do the unimaginable. 

    Alessia’s mother started to allow grown men, sexually and physically assault her daughter. Alessia’s mother allowed men to beat her, and rape her in trade for Alessia’s mother to get drugs. Alessia’s mother also allowed these men to drug her. The trauma was so unreal for such a young child to go through. At the age of four years old, Alessia was being tormented and abused. She was so young and nobody wanted to help her or believe her. This went on for years. 

    When Alessia was in seventh grade, she was about thirteen, she was in an english class. The teacher asked the class to write an essay about a memory they would never forget. Alessia decided she was going to write about the trauma she has been experiencing, in hope she could start to feel better about what was going on. She never intended to turn it in, she just wanted to write about it, and feel like she had someone listening to her. Alessia wrote about everything she was going through and how she was feeling about it. She spent the whole period sitting there writing about the trauma and expressing herself on paper, pretending that the paper was someone listening to her be brave enough to talk about it. At the end of the class she picked up her belongings and went to her next class. Alessia had no idea that she forgot the notebook she was writing her story in, in her last class.