Jessie I Snyder

Sleeping with the Angels--CHAPTER 1: Brief Family History



Posted: Tuesday, October 18, 2011

by Jessie I Snyder
TRUE INSPIRATIONS

Although, there is no way I can remember the first two to three years of my life I was told about two weeks after my birth, that my mother met my stepfather Bobby Huffman Reeves,  they fell in love and got married. My mother quit her job at Irene’s Diner and my stepfather provided for our family. Shortly after they were married she became pregnant with my baby brother. He was the first boy that my mother had. Then on July 4, 1974 my baby brother was born she named him Bobby Huffman Reeves, Jr., but unfortunately he was stillborn (born dead). My mother had to have an emergency caesarean section to remove the baby from her stomach; she started to hemorrhage severely and needed to have a blood transfusion because she lost so much blood. She almost died. Thank god she didn’t. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like without having a mother.

My stepfather worked as a roofer and would come home smelling like tar. Then he got a job at Tennessee Dressed Beef where he was a butcher and would come home smelling like dead animals. During this time my mother would cook dinner and when my stepfather would come home instead of eating the first thing he did was grab himself a beer and set down to watch television and because daddy wouldn’t eat I wouldn’t eat either. Soon his drinking became a real problem he would always get drunk and then he started popping pills. Uppers, downers whatever he could get his hands on.  After that I remember growing up in a troubled household. My stepfather became a violent alcoholic, who would hallucinate when he drank. Some examples of his paranoid violence we had to endure were: He would come in drunk, and if we were watching television he would break the television set believing that it was talking to him. If he fell over the furniture, he would break it all up believing that it was someone who was trying to gang him. It was a sad sight. He also had epilepsy and during his drunken rages, after he would break everything in the house. He then would end up going into an epileptic seizure. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. We went through more television’s and furniture than any child could ever dream about. Then there were times when he would come in drunk and accuse my mother of being some women who had ripped him off while he was staying in room 222 at the Metro Motel. He would always have some type of paranoid delusions when he was drunk. It was scary to be around him while he was in that state of mind. You never knew what to expect.

 I started preschool when I was four years old and attended McFerrin Headstart. Then I attended kindergarten at Caldwell Elementary when I was five and went on to the first grade at Tom Joy Elementary where I attended both first grade and the second grade twice. I had the same teacher for all three years. The first two years I was the teacher’s pet. However, in my final year things changed, she didn’t seem to like me anymore. I was always getting into trouble and even got a spanking or two. My home life was a living hell living with a stepfather who was a violent alcoholic. I didn’t have any friends growing up because I was scared to bring them around my stepfather never knowing what state of mind he would be in.  So I didn’t have a very happy childhood.

 Stay tuned for chapter two of Sleeping with the Angels
Jessie Snyder is a 39 year old college student at Full Sail University, web writer, and author of two books True Inspirations of the Heart (a book of poetry); and Sleeping With The Angels-A Story of Courage (her life story.) She hopes to get both books published within the next five years. She enjoys writing poetry, special interest and first person stories. Contact her at www.jessiesnyder.blogspot.com or follow her on Facebook, My Space OR Twitter. Also, at http://faithandinspriation.blogspot.com/
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)
» left by elle kynzer
 205 days 10 hours ago.
30 fans. Follow elle kynzer on twitter!
Your story is like a lot of stories in America, where commitment becomes violent, and children are the victims.

By giving your story you will help others.
» left by MKDS
 205 days 3 hours ago.
19 fans. Follow MKDS on twitter!
I concur with Ms. Kynzer, but it is very much widely spread throughout the UK, too, as well as other parts of the world I should imagine. In some cases Father's are Tea Total, like my Father was when he lost his job and became a different person completely. Divorce changed him even more and it was a case of keeping friends from school from coming to the house in fear that he would kick-off and humiliate me in front of them.

Your story is a reflection that ring's true so many Children's experiences over here on our small Island, Jessie, and by writing that experience you have had has been the first step which may find you some resolve in facing that darkness, that cloud that hovers over your head. At the same time, you will have given guidance, too, to others reading this story, whether you intended to or not. This is GOOD.

Wait I shall for the second Chapter with anticipation. In the meantime thank you for sharing your story with the Community.
» left by Iris S. Taub
from Parkland, Florida 204 days 19 hours ago.
Hi Jessie,

I think that unfortunately, many people can relate to your story and have experienced some sort of dysfunctional behavior in their families. It might be physical or emotional but the pain and scars left by being a victim of such abuse never go away.

From my own personal nightmare of living with a truly troubled mother who was not diagnosed until she was in her mid 80's and not treated with medication that could have prevented her outbursts and irrational behavior, and not having anyone to talk to or run too, I internalized those feelings that eventually took a toll on me physically. I was fortunate though to have three very special people in my life that helped me at different times to deal with living with her. My Dad who was my entire world until he died when I was 11, my sister-in-law who was a Mom to me until Dad passed away and my mother pulled me away from that side of the family and then my incredible Mother-in-law who taught me how to trust, love and accept love and we shared a special bond for over 39 years. We lost her over six years ago. She helped me become the woman I am today, the loving wife, mother and grandmother who now had the courage to break the toxic love syndrome and teach my children and grandchildren how to love and accept love without fear of being rejected and emotionally abused.

Iris. S. Taub
» left by Kim Nelson
 204 days 19 hours ago.
I loved your story and it is so sad that this happens all over the world. I can't wait to hear more it is very touching. You should have no problem to get those books puplished.

All the best

Kim
» left by Jennifer Stewart
 201 days ago.
152 fans.
Jessie, your childhood was so awful; I wish somebody could have been there to rescue you from it. I admire you for how you've overcome so much and for how you haven't let those experiences destroy you, but I think it can't have been easy.
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