I received an email from a friend of mine today...
...one that took amazing strength to write. I don't know how to introduce it so I'm just gonna put it out there as she wrote it, deleting any identifying information:
Meg,
I wasn't sure if I should write this or not, but decided that this story needed to be told, and that maybe if you posted it, it would help others.
My fiance is in the Army...I haven't made many friends since moving to where I live, so when he left, he told me to try and make friends, so I didn't become a crazy cat lady who never left the house. ;) I started talking to some people online from my area. My roommate, his girlfriend and I were going to go out last Monday and play some pool, so I invited a guy I'd been talking to. I gave him my cell number and told him to call me if he needed directions or couldn't make it. He called and said he was hung up at a friend's house. No big deal. Wednesday, he called and said he'd be passing through my town and if I wanted, he'd stop by and we could watch a movie. Well, I told him that was fine. He got here and we put the movie on. He tried to kiss me, and I pushed him away, saying "What the fuck is wrong with you? I have a boyfriend." He slapped me in the face and then pinned me down and choked me until I passed out. I woke up 2 hours later, naked from the waist down, covered in blood and bruises. I called my fiance, my mom, and the police. I was taken to the hospital, and 7 hours later, finally allowed to leave. It took them 2 hours just to photograph the wounds. The police are trying to find this guy now. I have learned the hard way that meeting people online is rarely safe, and never the best idea.. I'm just hoping my experience will help others. The bruises are fading, but i'll never be the same. I still can't sleep, eat... My fiance may have destroyed his military career by rushing home to make sure I was ok... There are good people in this world.. Some of us just have a homing device that attracts the scumbags.
Yep, we surely do. People can easily pick out the more trusting folk in the world...that's one of the reasons that I worried so much about my kid sister.
This lady's courage has given me the strength to tell a story that I haven't discussed in decades. It's the sexual assault that I mentioned in an earlier post.
When I was 16 years old, and a virgin, I was visiting my next door neighbor. Her brother was visiting from Wisconsin. His name is Michael Jarding and in 1974, he was 29 years old. We were all sitting at her kitchen table talking when he began playing footsies with me. I was quite taken in by this older man who seemed to like me and later on, when he asked if I wanted to go for a ride, I went quite willingly. He brought a bottle of Mad Dog and I drank some. It got me far too messed up to defend myself because it was the first alcohol that I had ever had.
I don't remember everything, but I do remember being in his back seat crying and saying "No!" over and over again. I was being raped and there wasn't a damn thing that I could do to stop it. He dropped me off at my house and I immediately went to Youth Group so I know this was a Sunday. As I sobered up and realized what had happened, I became afraid that my parents would be angry with me.
That night the youth group was cleaning the church and I was on kitchen duty. I tried to kill myself in a relatively stupid way...I poured ammonia and bleach in the sink and inhaled the fumes. The next thing I remember I was in the hospital and someone was saying, "Look at her neck." I had been choked as well. The doctors confirmed the presence of semen inside of me and told my parents that it was obvious that I had been raped. This was back in the day that rape victims were nailed to the wall and my parents didn't want me to be a victim again, so they didn't press charges.
The "incident" was never discussed again.
...one that took amazing strength to write. I don't know how to introduce it so I'm just gonna put it out there as she wrote it, deleting any identifying information:
Meg,
I wasn't sure if I should write this or not, but decided that this story needed to be told, and that maybe if you posted it, it would help others.
My fiance is in the Army...I haven't made many friends since moving to where I live, so when he left, he told me to try and make friends, so I didn't become a crazy cat lady who never left the house. ;) I started talking to some people online from my area. My roommate, his girlfriend and I were going to go out last Monday and play some pool, so I invited a guy I'd been talking to. I gave him my cell number and told him to call me if he needed directions or couldn't make it. He called and said he was hung up at a friend's house. No big deal. Wednesday, he called and said he'd be passing through my town and if I wanted, he'd stop by and we could watch a movie. Well, I told him that was fine. He got here and we put the movie on. He tried to kiss me, and I pushed him away, saying "What the fuck is wrong with you? I have a boyfriend." He slapped me in the face and then pinned me down and choked me until I passed out. I woke up 2 hours later, naked from the waist down, covered in blood and bruises. I called my fiance, my mom, and the police. I was taken to the hospital, and 7 hours later, finally allowed to leave. It took them 2 hours just to photograph the wounds. The police are trying to find this guy now. I have learned the hard way that meeting people online is rarely safe, and never the best idea.. I'm just hoping my experience will help others. The bruises are fading, but i'll never be the same. I still can't sleep, eat... My fiance may have destroyed his military career by rushing home to make sure I was ok... There are good people in this world.. Some of us just have a homing device that attracts the scumbags.
Yep, we surely do. People can easily pick out the more trusting folk in the world...that's one of the reasons that I worried so much about my kid sister.
This lady's courage has given me the strength to tell a story that I haven't discussed in decades. It's the sexual assault that I mentioned in an earlier post.
When I was 16 years old, and a virgin, I was visiting my next door neighbor. Her brother was visiting from Wisconsin. His name is Michael Jarding and in 1974, he was 29 years old. We were all sitting at her kitchen table talking when he began playing footsies with me. I was quite taken in by this older man who seemed to like me and later on, when he asked if I wanted to go for a ride, I went quite willingly. He brought a bottle of Mad Dog and I drank some. It got me far too messed up to defend myself because it was the first alcohol that I had ever had.
I don't remember everything, but I do remember being in his back seat crying and saying "No!" over and over again. I was being raped and there wasn't a damn thing that I could do to stop it. He dropped me off at my house and I immediately went to Youth Group so I know this was a Sunday. As I sobered up and realized what had happened, I became afraid that my parents would be angry with me.
That night the youth group was cleaning the church and I was on kitchen duty. I tried to kill myself in a relatively stupid way...I poured ammonia and bleach in the sink and inhaled the fumes. The next thing I remember I was in the hospital and someone was saying, "Look at her neck." I had been choked as well. The doctors confirmed the presence of semen inside of me and told my parents that it was obvious that I had been raped. This was back in the day that rape victims were nailed to the wall and my parents didn't want me to be a victim again, so they didn't press charges.
The "incident" was never discussed again.
posted by Meg Kelso | 7:26 AM
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