In foster care...

At thirteen, I was in foster care...
out in the country with a kind older couple
named Hank and Ellen who never abused me.
I was fed three times a day! I always finished my plate.

I had a room of my own...first time!
They bought me new clothes that fit me
and they were always clean and smelled outdoorsy.
Did I mention they never abused me?

I could run and play. Stare at clouds. I helped
collect eggs from the chicken coop. I had a kitten named Tiny and I even had a favorite tree!!!  Nice!
NO ONE HIT ME OR TOUCHED ME THERE!  Nicer!

Hank worked on a tree house and I tried to help.  I couldn't carry wood or use tools, so I was the supervisor.  I really liked my life with them -
because they never hit or raped me!

They didn't drink or do drugs. They never fought.
They gave hugs. They never abused me.  I was there 6 months and wanted it to be forever but then I was returned to Mommy Dearest!  Abuse guaranteed!

Ellen read to me.  Not little kid books
but poetry and classics.  Edgar Allen Poe
was my favorite.  I also loved Little Women.
Best of all - I wasn't beaten and raped!

My mother visited twice.  She always used
the excuse that getting there was too difficult.
She successfully used that to get me back -
to where I was abused!  Evermore!!!

I cried when I had to say goodbye to Hank, Ellen,
Tiny, the chickens and the unfinished tree house in
my favorite tree. I cried that I was no longer safe from being used and abused.  It hardened me!

They said they would send photos of the finished
treehouse and of Tiny.  If they did my evil cunt mother destroyed them.  She sold my new clothes saying they
no longer fit me. 2 days back and the abuse resumed!

The couple died in a fire set by a foster child placed 2 years after me.  My mother gloated showing me the news article about their deaths. I cried for them and
I cried for me!  I guess I didn't deserve that life.

I was able to find the property on Google Maps.  The fields were grown over and the buildings gone...but there was my favorite tree!  We'd both grown older - neither of us ever got that treehouse!