I’ve been thinking about April. National Child Abuse Prevention Month. There was nothing around like that when I was a kid. I thought maybe it would be appropriate to share a short piece from my book on that little girl and how she felt.

I WAS ONCE just a little girl and fragile. I was my parents incomplete thought in the back seat of a car at conception and the creature that would go on to ruin their lives. I was without substance, courage, appreciation or understanding. I believed I was treated so badly because I was so very wicked. I was self-serving and cared only for my own survival. I would not risk extra whippings or death to save my younger brothers. I believed I was an undeserving and worthless character whom my parents did not want and of whom God disapproved. (p.226)

In some cultures, and in our fairly recent American past, a black armband signifies that the wearer is in mourning or wishes to identify with the commemoration of a comrade or team member who has died. This use has been significant to me for the last few years as I have pondered over the fact that I live. Many like me did not.

I will be wearing a black armband, made from simple fabric store ribbon, throughout the month of April out of respect for those children and as an awareness that it happens all too often. I will wear a blue ribbon tied with it to commemorate the blue ribbon month of April. I hope you will join me. April is after all National Child Abuse Prevention/Awareness.