Living in Hell
There is nothing funny about this story. It is true. Names and locales have been altered.
Mary lived in a small town, in a pretty valley next to the big mountains. She also lived in the heart of hell. She had two children, aged about 3 and 6 and no husband to support her. Relatives took her in and allowed her to stay in one of 4 residences on the family property. Her children were the youngest, but there were others ranging in age on up to 16 or so. There were several generations of adults including grandmother and grandfather.
Things went along well enough until Mary discovered the 16 year old boy was regularly abusing both of her children. His house was eight feet away from hers. Family solidarity is extremely strong in that community and Mary believed in it. So she went to the matriarch of the family, the grandmother, who lived 30 feet away, for help. Grandmother told her "I took it, you took it and your kids will take it." It was true too. They had all taken it. They had been taking it, generation after generation, in that pretty valley for, well for as long as town had been there, going on 200 years. Exposing a member of the family to even the possibility of arrest, for having done something so normal, would not be permitted.
Mary loved her children and she wanted to protect them. But what was she to do? If she tried to protect them by going to the police, she would be on the street; with her children. She was not a pretty woman. There was no succesful man waiting to take care of them. She was not a clever woman. Menial jobs were the best she'd ever done. Her choice was to stay and have her children sheltered, fed, educated and preyed upon. Or she could get them out and take them...Where? And do what?
She stayed.
And then it got worse.
One evening, an evening just as pretty as the little town was, Mary was sitting in her house with her 2 children. She answered a knock at the door to see 2 uniformed officers and women from the Child Welfare Service. They entered and told her they were there to take her children away from her, right now. What had happened was a teacher of her 6 year old had discovered the predation and called the police. A case was opened but until there was enough evidence to arrest the 16 year old, Mary's children would be removed. She could not keep them.
Mary was surprised, afraid, uncertain, horrified and outraged. Every one of these reactions showed on her face and in her posture and her children missed nothing. They reacted like their mother did with the addition of a child's tearful, frenetic and confused, questioning and denial. "WHY MOM! WHY MOM WHY! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! NO MOM! NO!" All they knew was strangers with guns were there to take them out into the night.
The little family was being destroyed and they were panic stricken. An officer took Mary outside into the yard and talked to her. "Mary, this is going to happen. You know why and you know there is nothing you or anyone can do right now to stop it. But you can help your children, Mary. They don't have to go like this, crying and afraid. If you go back in there and you are calm, they'll be calm. If you aren't afraid, they won't be afraid. Whatever you are, Mary, they'll be. Please, please help your children."
So she did. She composed herself, went back into the house and told her children they were going to stay somewhere else for a little while and not to be afraid. She soothed them and helped them pick out which clothes to put into their plastic backpacks with the cartoon characters on them. She made sure the 6 year old took the right schoolpapers and then she stood by the door and waved as her boy and her girl were driven off into the dark. Mary had helped her children.
The 16 year old boy was convicted and the served the maximum time a juvenile offender could serve. Mary ultimately got her children back and they moved into their own house in a different place.
Mary lived in a small town, in a pretty valley next to the big mountains. She also lived in the heart of hell. She had two children, aged about 3 and 6 and no husband to support her. Relatives took her in and allowed her to stay in one of 4 residences on the family property. Her children were the youngest, but there were others ranging in age on up to 16 or so. There were several generations of adults including grandmother and grandfather.
Things went along well enough until Mary discovered the 16 year old boy was regularly abusing both of her children. His house was eight feet away from hers. Family solidarity is extremely strong in that community and Mary believed in it. So she went to the matriarch of the family, the grandmother, who lived 30 feet away, for help. Grandmother told her "I took it, you took it and your kids will take it." It was true too. They had all taken it. They had been taking it, generation after generation, in that pretty valley for, well for as long as town had been there, going on 200 years. Exposing a member of the family to even the possibility of arrest, for having done something so normal, would not be permitted.
Mary loved her children and she wanted to protect them. But what was she to do? If she tried to protect them by going to the police, she would be on the street; with her children. She was not a pretty woman. There was no succesful man waiting to take care of them. She was not a clever woman. Menial jobs were the best she'd ever done. Her choice was to stay and have her children sheltered, fed, educated and preyed upon. Or she could get them out and take them...Where? And do what?
She stayed.
And then it got worse.
One evening, an evening just as pretty as the little town was, Mary was sitting in her house with her 2 children. She answered a knock at the door to see 2 uniformed officers and women from the Child Welfare Service. They entered and told her they were there to take her children away from her, right now. What had happened was a teacher of her 6 year old had discovered the predation and called the police. A case was opened but until there was enough evidence to arrest the 16 year old, Mary's children would be removed. She could not keep them.
Mary was surprised, afraid, uncertain, horrified and outraged. Every one of these reactions showed on her face and in her posture and her children missed nothing. They reacted like their mother did with the addition of a child's tearful, frenetic and confused, questioning and denial. "WHY MOM! WHY MOM WHY! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! NO MOM! NO!" All they knew was strangers with guns were there to take them out into the night.
The little family was being destroyed and they were panic stricken. An officer took Mary outside into the yard and talked to her. "Mary, this is going to happen. You know why and you know there is nothing you or anyone can do right now to stop it. But you can help your children, Mary. They don't have to go like this, crying and afraid. If you go back in there and you are calm, they'll be calm. If you aren't afraid, they won't be afraid. Whatever you are, Mary, they'll be. Please, please help your children."
So she did. She composed herself, went back into the house and told her children they were going to stay somewhere else for a little while and not to be afraid. She soothed them and helped them pick out which clothes to put into their plastic backpacks with the cartoon characters on them. She made sure the 6 year old took the right schoolpapers and then she stood by the door and waved as her boy and her girl were driven off into the dark. Mary had helped her children.
The 16 year old boy was convicted and the served the maximum time a juvenile offender could serve. Mary ultimately got her children back and they moved into their own house in a different place.
posted by Carl at 1:35 PM
6 Comments:
Carl,
It amazes me that the DRC has a Child Welfare Service. That actually gave me a bit of solace from an otherwise sad story.
Damn, Carl, a bit grimm, no? Well, at least she saved her kids...
And this is in Congo, my Congo? Not that it surprises me, but it s more that I am surprised the police/authorities actually cared about a woman's plight...
Maybe I did too good a job altering the setting. This happened in the U.S.
It is a sad story, but a hopeful one too. She showed courage in the face of great stress.
It was obvious to me that it was the US, other than the description of a place like a compound. Compound makes me think of a) Africa or b) David Kuresh.
My guess was the U.S.A. too, even before reading the story until the very end. We forget sometimes how brutal and savage our own society can be. This kind of abuse happened in some families that I know back in the American midwest... for generations. The perps never went to court or to jail. Nobody said anything to the authorities, only to neighbors and to one another.
Black River Eagle: Hopefully, things are changing throughout the country. The schools, hospitals and police are very alert to any hint of that kind of thing and will act immediately; and it is hard to keep the victims from commenting to their schoolmates.
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