“In the early part of 1999, my older sister and I were playing in front of our grandparents’ house. I was nine-years0old and my sister was 13. I think we were rollerblading up and down the driveway, just having fun outside. In the midst of innocent play, we needed to get something from the back of my grandma’s vehicle. I don’t remember what it was we were getting, but I do remember what we found.
We found a journal and it was in my grandma’s handwriting. Intrigued, we began reading what appeared to be notes about my mother and her behavior… and her lack of parenting abilities. During this year, my grandparents had taken myself and my two siblings into their home. They had both just retired, and they did this not just out of love and selflessness, but out of necessity. My mother had been extremely neglectful of us. She was literally not feeding us, we were unbathed, our heads were infested (always) with head lice, we rarely went to school, and we had no clothes or even a bed. Her boyfriend was abusive to us in many ways as well. This all happened while my father was incarcerated.
So, back to that journal. In the journal, my grandma had been taking notes of how my mom would be late for visitation, how she wouldn’t show up sometimes, or how she was just not even attempting to be motherly. It was very thorough and even time-stamped. Basically, my grandma logged all interactions with my mom. And she was doing this I’m guessing for the court because they were trying to get custody of us.
But, the one thing that I remember reading was how my mom called my grandma one afternoon and offered to sell all three of us to them. She said she wouldn’t fight for us in the courts if my grandma gave her $200 for us. And they could have us. That’s about $66 and some change for us each. Pretty good deal, right? We stopped reading the journal after seeing that, but it always stuck with me.
I never asked my grandma about it. I never asked my mom about it either. I’m sure they didn’t accept her offer and simply shared this information about her with the judge in the custody case. They did get custody over all three of us. We had a wonderful life with my grandparents. We really did. I owe everything I am to them. And I have always known my mom wasn’t exactly ever going to be motherly. I’ve accepted that. But, I still wish I had never read what I read that day. My mom basically attempted to sell us. And not even for a lot of money. I could have gone my whole life without knowing that.”
