She Ended Before She Began

Stacie never grew up in a typical loving family with a father and a mother. Her family consisted of a mother who prostituted herself in order to stay off welfare to feed her four children, two brothers and a sister that all were Stacie's duty to care for being the eldest.

Stacie had to drop out of school herself just to help out with the cooking and taking care of her brothers and sisters. She made sure that her siblings were dressed and feed in the morning before they were off to school. Stacie took on a part time job durning the day at the local grocery store to help pay the bills. She was home on time to greet her siblings when they got off the bus in the afternoon. And she did their homework with them and made sure they were feed before she tucked them in to bed for the night.

Stacie ran the household. Her mother by this time was far deep into the life of drugs and prostitution that weeks would go by before Stacie and her siblings would see their mother. And when they did, their mother would be so high or need a fix that she hardly acknowledged them.

Stacie always dreamed of being a fashion designer, but her hopes slowly faded as she saw no bright future for herself. Stacie blamed her mother for abandoning her and the other children. She grew to hate her mother.

Stacie now only 16 years-old, felt so depressed that she herself started drinking to ease her pain and feelings of hopelessness. Stacie who once always had a bright smile on her round face, had bags under her blue eyes. Her skin was turning dry, she looked as if she was twice her age.

One day when Stacie did not meet her brothers and sister off the bus, they got worried. Her siblings let themselves in the apartment. The eldest brother is the one that found her. She drank herself to death. She didn't feel any pain, the only pain that she felt was now gone.

Her siblings were broken up, they each went to separate foster homes. They all stayed in contact, their mother was never heard from again.