Tell Me You're Sorry, Daddy--Two Scared Little Girls. One Abusive Father. One Survived Against All Odds to Tell Their Story by Caryn Walker

Author:Caryn Walker [Caryn Walker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786069184
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2018-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

When Graham turned up at Sports Day when Karl was seven, I really thought I would buckle. Thankfully, Gail was there, and when he shouted at me in front of the other mums, saying I was a slag, claiming I had destroyed his son’s life, Gail stood up and challenged him. He had a go at her too but she shut him up – she was fearless – and he left. Her husband supported me too, and to this day they would happily back me up on all those years of horror. Finally I involved the police. I was covered in bruises, my eyes so swollen I could barely see, and they charged him. He pleaded guilty and walked away with a Good Behaviour Order and an injunction. He broke it a few times but nothing happened. The only thing that gave me respite was when he finally met someone else and that relationship distracted him.

Over these years, I wasn’t the only one living a hellish existence. There were lots of problems for Jenny at this time too. There was illness on the part of Donna’s foster carer, house allocation issues, lack of financial assistance … she didn’t really stand a chance. I find the sparse notes on a case report from June 1987 so sad – they note that she was up and feeding Donna cereal early, both of them ready to face the day. She was given £43 a week allowance but thought that was a fortune as she was used to living on £12 a week, so didn’t want any more help. She showed off a sunhat she had bought her daughter as well as vests for her. She had bought ‘a double pearl hair ornament’. The next day she’s bathing Donna when the social worker arrives, the flat is tidy and clean and she had borrowed milk from a neighbour when she ran out. Donna is feeding herself Weetabix and managing very well. ‘Jenny played happily with her. Donna’s father is in contact and visiting the baby’ – but the next day the social worker notes that she believes Jenny and Donna’s father have been drinking the previous evening, although Jenny is up and dressed and bathing Donna again when she goes round.

Graham was in my life by this point, and I think Mum was having to deal with controlling both of her daughters – a time-consuming task. By October 1987, Jenny was seeing someone called Brian who had two kids and was on probation – it was noted that Jenny got ‘besotted’ with various boys, and would leave Donna with Mrs H without any concern. After only a few weeks with Brian, Jenny said she wanted the three of them to move in together – she was warned she was expecting too much from such a new relationship, but she was adamant and wanted to start looking for lodgings. Not more than a week later, she found somewhere. Checks on Brian came back to show he was ‘silly with his offences.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.