Blog 4

            There are no situations that I can personally relate to from our texts, however a close friend of mine did tell me a story of a summer he was abused in his own home at a very young age. Similar to Bone’s story in Bastard out of Carolina, a friend of mine was physically and sexually abused by his caregiver, which happened to be a very close friend of the family’s. His parents hired the daughter of a close neighbor to be their nanny over the summer while they worked. To the parents, she appeared to be a lovely girl: She went to church every Sunday with her family, was very well mannered, got accepted to a good college, and the parents were extremely respectable. However, the only one to see her true side was my friend, only 10 years old at the time. Over the summer while she was watching over him, she would make various sexual advances towards him whether it be in the pool, on the playground, and just while he was playing with his toys in the playroom. When he would try and resist any advances she would physically punish him. While the injuries were never severe enough to leave evidence, ranging from slaps to kicks and hair pulling. She told him that if he ever said anything to his parents or anyone he would get in “so much trouble.” Consequently, he didn’t say anything for the next 5 years. This summer nanny has affected his life forever and there is not a day that goes by that he does not think about it. This is not unlike Bone’s story. She was molested at a very young age by a person she trusted and later in her life was abused by that same person. And it effected her entire life.