Beyond Roses

My name's Madilyn. Madilyn Becker. I'm 16 almost 17 and I lived in Wisconsin growing up and didn't always have the best childhood. I grew up in a small little run down house in the middle of nowhere. My family never had much money , and it was even harder for my family when my mom left us when I was 7. My mom stayed at home to take care of me and Connor my older brother. My dad took on 2 jobs to try to pay and support our family. By day he was a gardener. He planted and grew the most beautiful flowers. Especially roses, they were always his favorite and mine too! And at night he worked the night shift at a local burger joint down the road. My mom had a huge drinking problem which caused a lot of arguments between our family. When I was 10 my dad got diagnosed with lung cancer and when I was 11 he passed away. This really took a toll on our family and my older brother got into some bad things, started drinking and smoking and was always very violent. When I was 13 he ran away with his girlfriend and I haven't seen him since. A year after that my mom and I moved across state into a small apartment. She now works two jobs trying to support us and has quit drinking; every year it seems to get tougher and tougher but my uncle somehow managed to get me into this rich private high school since I'm an honors student.