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CAKE AND BALLOONS
By: Jackie Montiel
true story about a young man with a diffcult path
and how he overcame foster care
I was just a young boy at the time.I had no idea who my father was, but I had too much of my mother. She would always be smoking and overdosing. She would get drunk most of the nights, and instead of her bringing dinner to eat, she brought men. My mom abused me mentally, psychically, and sexually. One night, my mom was ill, but she kept on drinking pills. Later that night, my older brother found her on the floor and took her to the hospital. I was told she passed away from a severe headache. As I grew older, I found out she really died from overdosing and also from having a temperature of 107.
"I was just six years old when I was placed into my
first foster home."
This house was huge and beautiful. Everything about it was great. I had three meals, even though I had to a share a room, it was a better living condition.
. There were about six other children living in the house. My social worker would come once a week to check up on me. Once, she joined us for dinner and told me that she would come every month untill I was adopted, unless there were an emergency. Little did I know that once she left everything would change. There were no longer meals, at least for me. The foster parents made food only for their biological children, which was two out of the six. Her voice changed into a deep careless person. If I was hungry, she either gave me oatmeal or made me a cheese sandwich. Her other two children would get a pasta meal or a juicy hamburger. I cried a lot, but not in front of anyone, just during nights in my bed. I felt alone and scared. I isolated myself from my other foster siblings.
After a month passed, it was the day my social worker would come to check up on me. I was awakened by my foster mom. She showered me, combed my hair, and even fed me three blueberry pancakes with bacon on the side. My foster told me before the social worker came, “Honey, I know I’ve been off this month, but I’m
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