To survive this, to get what she wants, she must be a thief, a cleaner, a navigator, a fighter, a cook, a whore; she must be a sufferer of blisters and loneliness and pain, she must be a hard worker, she must be tough and determined and unbreakable, she must not be an idiot, and now she must be humble.
On the third night, we pull in to rest at Reading, the horses muddy and weary, and all of us battered half to death. A blotchy and rather cross-looking king creaks in the wind overhead. Another King's Head. How many heads can one king have, I wonder to Molly, who rolls her eyes as if I have said something silly.
Picture: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/thomas-gainsborough-the-painters-da...
pick244 pages of oh my god, of horror. The author describes how her mother stole her innocence from her by deliberately making her sick. But, she continued to do this to the other children she fostered as well. Julie describes a house constantly full of gaslighting, abuse—both mental and physical. After years of suffering, she discovered there was a name for what her mother did to her, via a psych class. Processing this might have been worse⬇️
... why don‘t you start on that project...? It would be so interesting, like that Windrush thing they did some time ago on television, about the first immigrants to this country. I‘m sure you must have a story to tell. Why not start to get it down? I‘ve just spoken to Dr Raines and also to Rhoda from occupational therapy and they think it‘s a great idea....‘ Not sure if I want my life looked into like a Third World museum.
