Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Catherine Roerva used to be a good caring mother until she turned into an alcoholic . She would always be busy doing something you’d never see her sitting down on the couch. You could say she was a clean fiend: if she was cleaning no room in the house would be left untouched. She would cook for the family every holiday and every evening there would be a nice family dinner awaiting everybody. While dad was out at work (24hr shift) she would take the boys on fun day trips. Her relationship with her sons changed radically though. Now at these times, while father was out she would spend the entire day lying on the couch, dressed only in her bathrobe, and watching TV. Soon Catherine decided that the “Corner treatment “was no longer effective she began the hitting. It got worse and worse every month or so soon she began hitting him until she got tired. Near Christmas time, one day when Dave was getting home from school she began hitting him claiming she had gotten a letter from Santa that he had been a ”BAD BOY”. Christmas day, Dave got no presents but because of this Dave’s father had an argument with her. The argument only made her even more mad and soon she would get back at Dave. About a month later, Catherine had become a den mother for the Cub Scouts, this meant less torture for Dave. But on a random Wednesday (meeting day) she had the feeling of beating Dave up, she screamed at him, beat him up, and even burned him on top of the stove! Year after Year it got worse but throughout all of this Dave managed to survive. Back then, there were no Child Abuse Laws so if you’re questioning yourself,” Did this mother ever get arrested?” The answer is, No she did not! 


Events in Catherine’s life

2 comments:

  1. It is not true that "back then there were no child abuse laws" (Dave and I are the same age). Laws then were not as stiff or comprehensive as they are today, but they certainly did exist. That's one of the reasons I believe the events in this book are somewhat exaggerated from real life, while it's certainly possible for a parent to become this kind of monster I find it hard to believe that even then this could have been so bad so long without some authority figure stepping in. Not in California, anyway.

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  2. David always denied anything was wrong when questioned for fear it would get back to his mother, which would make matters worse. She would make excuses for why he had bruises or cuts or even a dislocated shoulder (she tried catch him as he was falling off the bed, right?). His mother was even premptive in preventing suspicion by telling the principal of David's school that he was jealous of the new baby and would hurt himself. This is why the abuse went undiscovered until David finally broke down and revealed all to the school nurse, setting into action his removal from the home.

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