Not sure if this is the right sub but it was the first one that came to mind. Mods, feel free to remove if I am violating any rules.
My Story:
Back when I used to work full time at a homeless shelter in NY, one of the clients that was briefly assigned to me was a Hispanic woman in her mid 20’s. She was quiet and reserved, but also very polite and intelligent. She was quite an elegant person from what I can remember and she was also a deeply caring and attentive mother to her girls. After meeting with her for about a month or so and establishing a deeper rapport, I recall receiving a text message from her very late one evening. It must have been at about 11PM because I was laying in bed(probably lurking this site) getting ready to call it a day. I don’t remember exactly how the conversation began but to my shock, she disclosed that she had been sexually abused by three of her male cousins for many years.
Being sympathetic and also a bit disturbed, I told her that I was very sorry about what had happened and ultimately recommended that she see a therapist. I further insisted that she accept a referral for MH services that I would provide her in the following meeting. She responded that she would consider it but somehow I had a feeling that she would not follow up on my offer. Besides her homelessness, she was functioning at a very high level. We chatted about something else for a few more minutes before she returned to the topic.
Apparently, her grandmother had passed away being very upset with her because all three of her male cousins had had died. I still didn’t put two and two together and when I asked her why her grandma would have felt that way, she responded, “because she believes that I’m the one that killed them.” Of course, I froze up starring down at my lit screen for a few minutes as that had taken me completely off-guard.
We never discussed that part of her life again and ultimately she was transferred to a different shelter. That was the last time that I saw or spoke to her. Now, it’s been almost 5 years since that time but she pops up in my mind from time to time. I often ruminate about things like how unimaginably horrid her childhood and teenage years must have been. But most importantly, how she had managed to plan and murder each one of her cousins before arriving in the US. Of course, that’s iff what her grandmother had believed about her was true.
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Since I am not yet at the 500 word requirement, I’ll take the time to vent about something related to this family.
Her daughters were very young and after a few sessions, they became very attached to me. My client would bring them to my office quite frequently and I remember we would google pictures that they wanted which I then printed out and allowed them to sit next to me and color.
The part I want to vent about was how messed up our society is that we were not allowed to hug the kids in a homeless shelter. I still get a little emotional thinking about how many times these girls and others wanted to hug me but I had to awkwardly hold them back and instead pat them on their head or softly shake their hands. I can’t forget the confused looks on all those children’s faces when they realized that I would not hug them back. It was heartbreaking and it still haunts me till this day.