Personal Narrative: My Home

I could feel the breeze skim through my hair as my loose shirt caught the brisk air behind me. This was my sanctuary, the feeling was bliss. I made my way home, bracing myself for the approaching argument I was about to have with my mother. That feeling of pleasure left my body as quickly as it arrived. I stepped into the front door, and closed it behind me as quietly as I could, maybe she wouldn't notice I was late home. But before I could even take the first few steps inside, I heard mum coming from the kitchen,

We had just celebrated the new year, a sign of new beginnings. The past fall my mother and I had a fight and were only communicating on a need to know. I had a boyfriend at the time, we had been dating for almost two years. I loved him and he loved me and I felt like nothing could ever go wrong, boy was I wrong. It was a cold morning, I woke up feeling strange but I could not quite figure out why. Jacob, my boyfriend, was the one who put the idea in my head. A couple hours later my life had went from just a normal nineteen year old, to being a nineteen year old facing being a mother. I was pregnant and there was nothing I could do to change that. Telling my parents, especially my mother was nearly impossible, “[a]nd after seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die” (Tan 321).

It was an ordinary winter day in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts. As people headed to work and school they looked forward to the adventures the weekend would bring the next day. However, not so far away, Henry Rosario and his wife, Wendy Contreras, waited anxiously in their apartment knowing that the moment that would change their lives forever was near. “As my first daughter it was very painful, scary, and anxious” (Contreras interview). After waiting for what seemed like forever, they decided to go to Salem Hospital. Once they arrived, however, they were told by the doctor that she was not was not ready to deliver yet and was sent back home. At home, Wendy paced around the living room in agony waiting for the moment to come so she could get

“No we need to go now. Get in the truck,” he instructed me. I reluctantly walked out, telling the kids we will be back soon. So we drove to the doctor, got the news, and drove home. Immediately I walked out to the barn to start cleaning. There hasn’t been a dust storm in weeks, so I was hoping it would last a little longer. I had rejected going to the doctor for so long. I was already a few months into pregnancy. I didn’t know how I could hide it from my children but I didn’t want them to worry about

My mother was out of town, so I knew it was not her. I grew afraid of the strange woman in my house, the maroon-colored walls in my bedroom was giving me an ominous feeling, making my room look stained with blood. I went quietly out of my door and down the hallway, knowing that they were arguing in the kitchen by the volume of their voices. I paused in the middle of the hall, unsure whether to continue or to go back to my bedroom. I only decided on the former after I heard a muffled shout and the woman’s voice laughing. This decision was the biggest mistake of my life.

I felt someone rubbing my arm softly. When I opened my eyes, I was on the couch with… Katy was snuggled up against me and held my arm in place as I tried to move it from cradling her. Oh, but the man’s deep harsh voice that now rattled my brain had me frozen in place and in pain. Katy covered most of my face being in front of me as we spooned, but I could see (who had to be her dad) on the wall size TV looking at the two of us huddled closely together.

We were walking for a few hours. My feet throbbed and my ears were ringing from Taylor’s whining. Finally I could see it, the old abandoned house I discovered one day while riding my bike. The door was barely hanging onto its hinges, and there were several windows missing or broken. I pried open the splintering oak door. In the house there was two rooms. One, the one you first enter, was most likely a kitchen and living room. There was a sofa with faded fabric and springs popping out everywhere. An old furnace sat in the corner with rotting charcoal inside. The door of the furnace was missing rendering the whole thing useless. The other room was much smaller. It was a bedroom. There was a twin sized bed. The frame was rusty and missing a leg. I pulled the mattress off of it, so we could sleep on it. There were springs and stuffing sticking out of the mattress. It wasn’t too dirty to sleep on because I pulled off the moldy sheets. We laid down on the mattress. Taylor started snoring within minutes. I was worried about Mom. She had had a seizure before. It was because of her failing liver. Last time, social services took me and my sisters to a girl’s home. They served cooked vegetables that smelled like rotten seafood and chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken. After Mom got out of the hospital she got custody of us, but the judge told her if it happened again she wouldn’t get us back. My older sister, Becca, was eighteen so she didn’t have to

This was the first day of the music festival, Woodstock. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as April looked back at me, her smile bright like the sun or that awful salmon colored shirt. April was bursting with excitement as she jump up and down while others stared at her. It was probably because they never seen a pregnant woman jump. April was rich, 9 month pregnant widow who models for a living. She loved music so much, she was willing to go to a crowded, claustrophobic area just for music, even if she was about to burst. I thought it was going to be a simple ‘listen to groovy music and head home’. I never thought that April would get mad mood swings, lose herself in a wave of people, and actually break her water.

My mother had left my dad’s house slippers by the coat rack behind the door. I was grateful to her as the floor felt like ice. Hanging up my coat, I slipped into my dad’s bathrobe, which was hanging on its peg. We had a fireplace in the living room and the chimney exited the west side of the roof. I smelled the smoke of the dying fire, and I knew my mom was in bed. The bedrooms were located on the second story. Her room was located at the end of the hallway, and my room was at the head of the stairs above the

For the fifth time that night, I walked over to my mom’s bed to see if she was breathing. I felt the relief wash over me when I saw that she was breathing. She had started to slur her words after dinner around six thirty. Judging by my past experiences this meant she popped a handful of her usual pills around quarter to six. There was nothing out of the ordinary for me in the situation. This was every day life for me, the years leading up to my first year of high school. I was fourteen, and I had been taking care of her from what felt like the time I could walk. Little did I know that would be the last night I had to wake up in twenty-minute increments to check on her. When morning came my bags are being packed, confused I asked what was going on? My aunt walked in to the living room and simply said, “you will be living with me.” Just a short phrase changes my life forever on a day I’ll never forget. It was in the

When we headed up to her room to prepare for bed, the night hit rock bottom. It started with her ranting about how mad and upset she was with me, but the second I tried to explain that I’d done nothing, and didn’t deserve her comments all night long, it escalated quickly. Her shrieks projected off the ceiling, echoing throughout the room; I swear the whole block could hear her. Suddenly, the heat of the atmosphere rose: tension. My heart raced. My body paralyzed.

I woke up at 3:30 to Addison screaming. "Your turn," I said pushing Carson. "I got her last time," he whined. "Well I gave birth to her so you go," I sassed. "Ugg," he groaned as he got up. He left and returned a few minutes later with Addie in his arms. "Addie girl, why don't you sleep?" I asked taking her from Carson. She just snuggled into me. "She had a full diaper," Carson explained. "Of course, she's asleep," I said looking down at Addison asleep in my arms,"I'm going to go rock her." "Babe why? You need your sleep," Carson asked. "I know. I just want some baby snuggles," I said getting up.

After I’m done treating my bruised neck, I go lay down slowly next to my wife. I’m a little worried about, but I let it go seeing her as a threat no more. I feel her arms around me, so I put mine around her, but as I do it, I feel the cold plastic touch of the baby monitor in her hand. I open my eyes to see her eyes wide open, glaring back at me in a disturbing way. Her hands go around my neck as the lullaby plays from the monitor again. I feel myself drifting peacefully away, letting the lullaby take over and soothe me like a drug until I’m gone. I never wake up the next morning or any other

     My mom drove me to what would become my last visit to the doctor’s office before giving birth to my daughter. Dr. Dermer observed me and then told me to be at the hospital around six thirty that evening. He advised me to eat a good dinner before departing for the hospital. Dr. Dermer had decided to induce my labor, due to the fact that I was two weeks past my due date.

First of all, found I was pregnant I was so shocked with weird looking expression on my face. I was nineteen years old with no type of financial stable, home, car, school. Actually in May 2007 I was had no signs of pregnancy, I eat all the time all day everyday so I was not thinking I was pregnant with baby in my stomach. I knew when I did not get my monthly visitor every month their was a problem. I went to the doctor and took a pregancy test. At home I was watching television, I was pretty sure everything would be fine I told myself that. The phone rang I ran out my room so fast to grab the phone I said hello. On the other end of the phone the nurse tells me is this, Tamika Thomas I said yes this is me’’ I like to inform you my gut began to twisted up she said the words that forever