Page 20 - Consider The Lillies of the Field - My Story: Jill Kemp

searched my room she never saw the Bible. And I thank God for His
loving protection.

Before my Dad had remarried, my own mother had visited and had
taken me to the Easter show. She bought me a large woolly dog. When I
was about 12, my Stepmother decided that I had “purposely” made it
smelly and made me burn it. That was one of the most traumatic days
of my life. I just couldn’t light the match because to me it felt like I
was de-stroying the only tangible link I had to my mother. I cried and
pleaded to no avail. The incident was traumatic for my sister too. The
helplessness and emotion of watching each other being abused affected
us deeply. We both suffered from terri-ble nightmares.

The hopelessness! It didn't mat-ter what you

did, it was wrong. If you were sent to the
shop for butter and they never had any
you would get a hiding for not using your
initiative and bring-ing dripping. But if you
bought dripping it would be wrong. I
never developed initiative until I left home
and it took years for me to be able to make
even sim-ple choices like which colour
article to buy, I wasn't used to it.

When Mum and Dad first got married we
ate at the table with them and quickly
learned the best of English table manners!
But as the years went by meal-times
became unpleasant as we were constantly
picked on and

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