HANDCUFFED AND TOSSED INTO FOSTER CARE
The Guardianship ended too soon. Mommy called Rick and asked him to put me on a bus to Santa Barbara.
I remember the first feeling of not wanting to be with Mommy or anybody. My life was turned upside down and she took us from place to place so often we could not keep up. We often wondered where we would go next and we were failing school because we never stayed anywhere long enough to learn anything.
Upon my first arrival I found them all living in a motel once again. How much more would this be until we finally settle down.
Mommy was excited to see me, but I wasn't excited to see her.
I had no choice. We were crammed into one room and slept on the floor. Mommy always took the bed. (By the way, it wouldn't be the last time.)
Daniel and I went to Santa Barbara Junior High School. He was in the Eighth grade; I was in Ninth. Here I was back in Junior High.
Daniel and I joined the band and hoped to learn how to play instruments so that we could join the marching band. The marching band was invited to perform at Disneyland. Daniel and I stayed behind.
The motel manager was kicking us out and we had to move again. Mommy took on a lot of the burden of always finding us all another place to live. At least she had the welfare people to help her or she went on her own looking for a home for us.
Back in 1977 it was easy to get a house or apartment to rent. They didn't ask for a credit check or deposit or 2 to 3 times the rent for income. They took the person's word that they could pay the rent.
She found a small house somewhere near the 101 freeway which was also in a different school district. The house did not come with a stove or a refrigerator. This would become a major factor in this story.
I would attend La Cumbre Junior High School and it was kinda Ghetto.
Rick was far away now, so I didn't miss him much. I wrote letters to him and pretended that I was in love. Actually, I didn't care too much about my relationship with him and was beginning to consider my own life as a teenager free from a boyfriend.
As we were settling into our new surroundings we went about our lives doing normal things.
We went to school, we made friends with the neighbors, went to the beach. we had normal lives. Daniel had a paper route which was a normal job that young boys did. When he wasn't using his bicycle I would ride it freely up and down the streets in our neighborhood. I tied a radio to the handlebars and enjoyed my rides with music.
I had hopes of finally settling down into a normal family life. That hope was shattered one day when tragedy struck.
One fine morning we had all walked to the grocery store to shop for food. Mommy was with us. We were tired and looking forward to getting home, putting the groceries away and relaxing. We pushed the shopping cart all the way home and actually entered the living room with the whole shopping cart full of food.
I was wearing my blue jean dress and had just taken off my shoes when suddenly there was a knock on the front door.
Let me say here that our brother, David just joined the Army at age 17 and Elaine was over 18. David was gone and Elaine stayed with us.
Mommy answered the door and there stood two officers and one woman. They claimed they were F.B.I. and the woman was from the welfare department .
I was thinking why was the F.B.I. here? They said that someone reported my mother for abusing us and starving us , so they are going to take us away into Foster Homes.
Me and my two little brothers, Daniel and Timmy.
I went on a rampage. I looked at them and yelled out, "We just came home with a cart full of food right here in front of you. Do I look starving to you? I am a teenage girl. I am supposed to be thin not fat."
At that time Mommy was not abusing us .
I was hysterically upset and I ran into the kitchen. The cops immediately ran after me. Mommy was yelling at them and she ran across the street to the neighbor's house to call her mother in New York. I ran after her and called Rick. He told me to cooperate with them. I ran back to the kitchen screaming at everybody. The cops tackled me to the floor and grabbed me everywhere; grabbed my arms behind my back and handcuffed me and pushed me into the police car like a common criminal. I truly believed that they were arresting me. This was very violent abuse on me and severely traumatizing. I was screaming at them the entire time on my way to the police station. They pulled me out of the car and manhandled me into the station then put me into an empty room and left me alone and locked the door. (My mind was on escaping and running away.)
When they finally opened the door I yelled at them again that they had no right at all to treat me like this. I was a prisoner of the Foster Care system.
There are many more grizzly details to the story about my treatment as a so-called foster care victim.
My release was to be done only upon the demands of the judge who ordered my mother to buy a stove and refrigerator for the house we were renting and she was given two weeks to do so.
As soon as the two weeks were up she told the judge that she had made the purchases.
I wasn't allowed to speak up to tell the judge what was happening t me in the house where they put me and said children are not able to speak for themselves. (What a crock that was. I was 15 and had a brain bigger than they would ever have.) Boy did I have lots to say.
Anyway , they allowed my brothers and I to go home on a 2 week trial bases. My brothers were taken to a different home where they were treated well, while I was in HELL the entire time.
As soon as we got home , Mommy already had a plan and everything was packed. We did not sleep in that house ever again.
That night we got into the neighbor's car and they drove us to a town up North where we caught a bus back to San Francisco. Elaine stayed behind with friends and I didn't see her again until some time later.
We ended up right back in a junky motel in a small town where Rick lived.
My life with Rick would begin from that moment on.
Ever since this incident happened I had felt traumatized by it for 50 years.
