Article June 21, 2004 Issue

'I began to walk with my head up'

By Herb Webb

From my youth through my teenage years, a close family member ridiculed me frequently. Maybe she picked on me because I was the oldest of all the kids in my family. Whenever she yelled at me, I would go upstairs and lie on my bed and cry in silence.

During a period of years, I withdrew from the abusive family member and naturally gravitated toward another relative who was kind to me. I knew I didn't deserve to be abused.

One day, when I was about sixteen, I walked into my house, and both of those family members were in the same room. I went over to talk to the relative who was nice to me, and the other relative, who had been so verbally abusive for so long, said to me, "You're nothing." I looked at her with tears in my eyes and told her, "I did not ask to be born." And I went back upstairs to my room.