Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sickened: Part Five

Summary:
In part 5 of my memoir Julie finally tells a counselor about the abuse she endures from her parents. A lady from child services goes to the house and takes the foster children away from her parents and tells Julie that if she needs help to call her. Julie was happy she saved the foster kids from her parents and was happy they made it so that her parents could no long have foster children. But when Julie’s mom found out it was her who made that happen she told Julie that her father was going to kill her. Julie had no other option then to finally take a car and run away, seeing she was sixteen. The lady from children services put her in a foster home and told her they would take her parents to court. But when it came time for trail, Julie’s dad had convinced her that she was in the wrong and the courts had no testimony from Julie so they sent her back to live with her parents and Danny, her brother. When she went home the family was different. No more doctors’ appointments, no more fighting, no more abuse. Her parents even trusted her to go stay at her friend Carmen’s house. But the next morning when she got home her house was burned to the ground. She quickly found her mother and asked where her beloved dog P.J. was. Her mom told her the dog was trapped in the house and died in the fire. In part 5 the years fly by quickly. Julie moves out and is 21 now. She now wants to go back to school and in her summer class they start to talk about different types of abuse. One day her professor starts talking about this common type of abuse that is normally a mother conflicting it on her daughter. As she listens to the things that may occur during this type of abuse, her life flashes before her eyes. “This form of child abuse is called Munchausen by proxy, or MBP.” Julie finally realized, her mother was doing this through her entire childhood.

Reaction:
My reaction to part five of Sickened is just that, sickened. I don’t know how someone can look at their daughter and say that they are not the one in wrong, but in fact the victim is the one who is the wrong. It hurts me to know that Julie finally had the courage to runway, be free, and safe for once in her life; then be manipulated back into believe she is the one with problems. It’s just wrong! Then my reaction to the house burning down and P.J., Julie’s dog, dying in the fire is what kind of sick person would do that? I love my dogs and I know how Julie must have felt. When my first dogs died it felt like a family member of mine died. So for Julie, knowing her dog burned to death must have been extremely hard! P.J. was like her best friend and taken away from her by her father who apparently doesn’t have a heart. Then the fact that she finally moved out and decided to go back to school made me extremely happy for her. The day she found out about MBP made me ecstatic! I was smiling from ear to ear when I reached that part. But I’m still hurt that it took her 24 long years to finally here about MBP.

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