Snow Melt

Bonus - The Secret I Grew Up With

I grew up with secrets, Not the type of secrets I could tell my friends in junior high or high school. I couldn't tell them because things like that didn't happen to nice girls or in good families.

How could I tell the people I went to school and church with that the man they though was my stepfather, was never married to my mother even though she used his name? How could I tell them that he came into the room and the bed I shared with my sister at night? How could I tell them what he did?

In Blackwell I had few friends in junior high, how can you have friends when you can't tell them secrets? In Blackwell, we had our grandparents to give us some protection. He took care of that by moving us to Shawnee. This brought up a whole new set of problems. I had no friends in high school because of the secret. Only now it had gotten even worse, now he was married to my younger sister. I finished high school, but my sister didn't.

Several years ago, a friend ask me if my sister and I were half sisters because she and my mother had the same name and mine was different. I told her no, but I didn't tell her anything else. I didn't tell the secret because I was afraid to tell her or anyone else. At 61, I am no longer afraid to tell my secret.

My sister and I were molested, my sister married her abuser.

At 61 the only thing I am afraid of is dying without reaching my full potential on this material plain.

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