Page 42 - DAPHNE HART - MY MAMA STORY (AUDIO VERSION)

He was there. The father hated that. If only they were boys. So he
decided that I was no good — because I couldn’t give him boys. His

friend had boys, and he didn’t. I was abused without mercy. Because

of his abuse, I suffered two miscarriages. Who knows — those could
have been the boys.

As if it was my fault I didn’t have boys.

That was the only problem: no boys.

Sometimes I would hide when he came home. Once, I was kicked down

four flights of stairs, eight months into the last pregnancy. The reason?
I put a crease in his shirt sleeves when I ironed it and dared to tell him,

“Why don’t you do it yourself?”

Poor Shernett — she refused to die, although she was very

traumatized. When she was born, she wouldn’t breathe for a good two

minutes or more.

Because of that, for fifteen years I suffered the worst abuse you can

imagine — physical, mental, psychological — and my self-esteem was
below zero. Battered and bruised, and with no one to turn to, I turned

to his mother. May her soul rest in peace. She would tell me, if I
wanted to leave, I could go, and she would keep the children. But where

could I go?

She offered to build me a little room at the back of her house, but I
would not accept, because I was deathly afraid of her son. Dear Miss

39