True Story

Children fight for their lives every
day. But this one child, she fought extra
hard to escape her home that was filled
with a drunken father and an absent
mother. So traumatic that at the age of
twelve she left. Living with

a man who traded sex for safety and
sex for drugs. She was twelve. She
blocked it out of her mind as much
as she could and took the path of
drug addiction. Using and abusing
until she was locked up. Living with

the man who caged her trading her
freedom for safety and freedom for
an education that she never received–
not even a GED was completed by
the time she left. Living with

whoever would put her on a couch
at the age of seventeen. Safety
abandoned and trading her body
for love that she has never been
able to feel for herself. Until she
was eighteen and pregnant. Surfing
trailers and friends until birth.

Children fight for their lives every
day and children of children fight
to find just one place of safety but it is
too hard when children are living with

children. No service came to bring
a car seat or food or education or
a future. The safety net has holes
so large that children fall through,
drowning. The hospital judged them
a drain on resources and sent them
home to surf one last night. Children
are no longer living with

children. There is one less at-risk child.

In Memory of Baby T.

– Terri Stewart