"Her name is Diane Jones. Today her presence is calm and
warm. I knew her as a quiet, terrified child struggling to grow
up, nay, even to stay alive in a large violent matriarchal family.
There was no father figure, only a sequence of men. Diane was
thirteen years old when I first met her. Through a program in the
California Department of Social Services, I had been assigned to
be Big Sister to a younger sister of Diane. This younger sister
was also badly abused both in maternal violence and in sexual
abuse, as was Diane, but to a much lesser degree. I thought of
Diane's mother as a raging bull with massive mood swings from
manipulative and charming to a cruel, mean and evil woman. I
myself was afraid of her. If I had known what was really going
on during the years I worked with the family, I would not have
had the power to do anything about it. My only hope and
motivation at that time was to give them a view of what life was
like from a different perspective and thus help them be kinder to
their children. I am always appalled by the fact that Social
Services felt it was best to keep children connected to their
families no matter how monstrous the evil in the home.
Twenty-six years later, we are all wiser."
MELANIE TAYLOR
