Judy Mack
Professor Tatarzyn
English 0309
13 October 2015
A Whisper With a New Voice
Looking back on my childhood filled with memories and events, I find it hard to focus on just one area of my life. The day that comes to mind was a normal Sunday evening dinner with the aroma of moms home cooking filled the air. Chicken, sweet potatoes and macaroni and cheese to be exact, with all five siblings and mom and dad sitting down for a nice home cooked meal. This would be the last evening we all would spend together as a family. Our family was to fall victim to life circumstance and problems. Alcoholism and disabilities were some of the circumstances that led to what happened in the coming months.
Born in the early 60’s in the era of the baby boomers and a time when there were hippies and not many intuitions that could help families with dependencies. Mom was an alcoholic and dad had a spinal injury from the Vietnam War and was confined to a wheel chair. At age 4 I found myself placed in a foster home with 2 of my siblings. This turn of events was not welcomed in our family but what was necessary under the circumstances. I had to make the best of an unforeseen situation so I embraced it as best I could. My classmates were not as forgiving and so the labeling and stereotyping began with name calling, orphan and a girl with no home were some forms of stereotyping that was going on in our class. This made it very hard at times to keep myself esteem up and so I hung my head down low with self pity. The expectations from the teachers seem to be low having a label with the inability to perform well in class because of the circumstance in which I lived.
The foster home where I was living was quite large in size, white marble stairs lead up to a big 7 bed room house. The inside was equally impressive with colorful panel walls and beautiful furniture that was covered in plastic so it would not get damaged or stained. Back in the day clear plastic covers...