Strength of a Woman

Kathleen Bliss

Description

This book is about how I have endured and over came and still working to over come.
I will tell you as I’m going through my poems I wrote; I have no idea where they came from within me. I’m sixty years old and have no real clue about the way a real relationship is supposed to feel, or behave.

Sujets

• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669852810
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

STRENGTH OF A WOMAN
Standing on My Own
Kathleen Bliss

Copyright © 2022 by Kathleen Bliss.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-5282-7

eBook
978-1-6698-5281-0
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 10/26/2022
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
847830
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen

I am dedicating this book to my daughter in law, Brittany, she is one of the strongest women I know. She is my counselor when I need one, she is my sounding board when I need one but most of all she is my grounder, she keeps me grounded with bluntness and no sugary coated words. If I do something stupid, she will let me know about it in the kindest way that she has, being blunt and I would not change it for anything in the world. It is done with love. I love you Brittany very much, you are the best daughter in law a woman can ask for.
INTRODUCTION
Names have been changed to protect the innocent
 
These are my words and my recollection of my life, if I could not remember the year, they took place I asked my brother Gordon, he remembers everything.
I am a Christian first and foremost, I’m not perfect, far from it. God is still working on my bull headedness. He is also still working to make sure I’m safe and I heal correctly. With his help anything is possible.
There are several types of abuse, some of them include but not limited to:
Rape, incest, verbal, physical, psychological, manipulation, monetary, bullying, and self abuse. The silent treatment is also a form of abuse.
This book is about how I have endured and over came and still working to over come.
I will tell you as I’m going through my poems I wrote; I have no idea where they came from within me. I’m sixty years old and have no real clue about the way a real relationship is supposed to feel, or behave.
I have been told by a few people that they think I’m the best, I don’t know, I’m just me, what you see is what you get. I’m an open book, I wear my heart on my sleeve. I told my one friend when she said I am the best that I was gonna cry, she said she didn’t say it to make me cry. I told her I know; I’m just not used to hearing nice things about me or compliments of any kind. I do what I do because that is me, nothing special.
Looking back over everything I realize I have never been on a date since I was 16 years old and went bowling with a kid we went to church with.
CHAPTER ONE
I was born April 3,1962; I was born 3 months early because my mom fell down the cellar stairs to put coal in the furnace because my dad didn’t do it and would never do it. We lived on a small farm about 20 mils from Erie pa.
I weighed only 1.9 lbs. Back then they didn’t have all the medical stuff they do now. I was born with yellow jaundice and was in an incubator I think until I was discharged on my normal due date of July 13 th . My mom’s doctor said he wouldn’t give her a plug nickel for me. I have been told this story so many times I feel like I was there to witness it. My parents took Bonita to see me in the hospital and she told my mom that she wanted a baby sister not a rat. The only dress ma could find to fit was a red velvet with a pink ribbon from a toy doll baby. I had that dress for years. When they brought me home, they took me to see my grandma Florence, my mas ma, she had just taken bread out of the oven, she got a shoe box and made a bed in it and placed me on the oven door to keep me warm. My mama swears that is what helped me survive that and God.
I had 3 brothers and 2 sisters, one sister on my dads side, Lauri and one sister on my moms, Bonita, one whole brother, Gordon and 2 half brothers, Bob and Mike on my moms side. I never knew we were half brothers and sisters; I didn’t care I loved them equally.
My sister Bonita had two children, my nephew Peter in 1966 and my niece Isabella in 1968. I would put Peter in my doll stroller and push him in it. I was 5 years old and Peter was 1 and I remember changing him, I did pretty good with the cloth diapers, didn’t poke him once with the pins. Poked myself but not him, I was pretty proud of myself. I took the diaper to my mom and she asked me what happened, I told her I changed Peter, she had to come and see to make sure I did it right. We had all kinds of animals, pigs, chickens, goats, a cow and a horse I loved them goats. There was Billy, the bully, nanny, the mama, and April the baby. We would leave the doors open and they would walk in the house to the living room and sit and watch TV with us kids on Saturday morning. One day we were playing and my brother Gordon bent over and Billy ran up and head butted him in the butt, never laughed so hard as I did that day. Our cow daisy got loose, my dad got a rope around her neck and tried to put her back in the barn but she had other ideas, she took off running and dragged my dad over the ground, he wanted to shoot her but our milk man Tinker took her to raise and she became a milk cow. She broke my dad’s ribs and he had to wear a belly band tight till his ribs healed. We made pets out of all our animals, my dad would kill a chicken for dinner but us kids refused to eat it because it was one of our pets, after that my dad would take a chicken to the meat man and trade him for chicken that we didn’t raise, unbeknownst to us it was still ours, my dad wasn’t all terrible as long as he was boss and what he said was followed to the letter. We had a lot of dogs and cats that would roam all over. I would dress the puppies up in doll clothes. We had 60 acres for our playground. We roamed those acres everyday, never telling anyone where we were or having to check in. Good times for sure.
The horse we had was blind in one eye but was the best, I would ride her all the time, my dad bought us a small dirt bike, electric start, I loved riding that thing.
I thought we had a pretty good life except my dad was a mean guy. If he didn’t like what my mom cooked or how she cooked the food he would throw his plate food and all at her. If us kids got an F on our report cards my dad would spank us with the belt. My brothers had it worse, if they made him mad for stupid reasons like not knowing how to work on the car, they were young, of course they wouldn’t know, he would grab a two by four or a fan belt and hit them.
We did have some real good times also, we would play baseball in our front yard, my mom could slug a ball really good and I would run the bases because she couldn’t run. My brothers were riding bikes and I would chase after them, my dad bought me a bike but I fell off a couple times and refused to ride it, I would find a rut in the driveway and park the bike so the training wheels were on either side and the bike tire was in the hole and practice riding that way. One summer my aunt Winnie and cousin Nancy came for a visit, before work my dad told me if I didn’t learn to ride the bike by the time, he got home he was going to paddle me. My ma decided to take us to the beach, when we got home Nancy and I were taking a bath when Nancy called my mom in, she took one look at me and put me to bed, I had chicken pox, I was never so glad, it meant I wasn’t going to get paddled and I didn’t have to ride the stupid bike, only thing I hated was I had to stay in bed and couldn’t go out side.
One night at dinner we had mushrooms and beets I don’t remember the rest of the food, my brother Gordon tried the beets and mushrooms and didn’t like them, my dad made him eat them, Gordon was getting sick and wanted to go to the bathroom but dad wouldn’t let him, unfortunately my brother got sick at the table in his plate. My dad tried to make him still eat it until my mom and sister Bonita stood up to him. There was hell to pay for that. I don’t know what happened because I was sent to my room.
I didn’t realize back then this was abuse, I thought it was normal and that my dad was just mean.
We had some neighbors that were great, like a second family to us, the Kings. We would hang out all the time. Mama Rose was the best second mom to me. She was always smiling and happy but if you did something bad or crossed her in any way watch out, she was a bear to make sure you toed the line. We all grew up on a little road called Comer Road, all the neighbors knew they could correct us, if need be, if and when that happened, they were sure to tell our parents and we got corrected twice for the same thing. We learned to be respectful and use our manners. The 60s and early 70s were a great time to be a kid and grow up.
In March 1972 my mom went to Colorado to visit my Aunt Winnie, Bonita got us kids up for school after my dad left for work, I was sick so she kept me home, my dad was mad about that, I couldn’t stand up straight, Bonita took me to the doctor in Edinboro and found out I had appendicitis, they asked her if she wanted to take me in to Saint Vincent, she said no way, to much snow and ice. She