During my life, I have often gotten the distinct impression that people knew about me before I even arrived on their scene. Many had no qualms putting me in my place if they felt I overstepped my boundaries.
This would be a tactic that I would have to learn when it came to other people trampling over my rights and “supposed” family life. It has been no secret that Mickey and Minnie have a whole heap of God children.
Afterall, in the Jamaican diaspora people only make persons who are somewhat well-off or extremely generous God parents. From day one, I knew Mickey & Minnie were not my god parents.
They had disrupted my life all in the name of the glorious adoption and then midway they started singing a new tune. The tune they began heralding was a story they concocted insinuating I was more of a god child.
It was then they started rolling out the red carpet to Minnie’s family who are their god children and others. It was as if they had set out on a retroactive kick to bring them up to speed giving these “God children” the same perks and access I had to earn as an adopted child.
Back then, I had no clue what was happening except that other people’s children were stepping on my toes. Now that I am more mature and intuitive, I can only imagine that some unkind words were said about me by the local gentry. The comments further fueled Mickey & Minnie’s plans to detach from me.
Their preoccupation with embracing others’ children was to throw off any unfavorable backlash they would receive from critics wondering why they alienated and abandoned me. They had to make everything look as if the Godchildren and I were on an even keel.
Knowing them, I can only surmise it was another caste system, socio-economic war as I was often told that inquiring minds wanted to know why I had to be up front and center all the time.
If I have not spelled it out before for these persons, I will gladly do it now. I have to be up front and center because they made a decision to disrupt my childhood. From the time I was 5 until seven years old adoption papers were in the works for me. I had to watch adults duke it all out as if it were a boxing match in Las Vegas.
I had to go before judges and magistrates of the court trying to convince them why these two persons should adopt me. Looking back, it was a lot of pressure and stress for a kid especially the way things worked out.
Nothing about my adoption was informal. The extensive paperwork that follows me around till this very day details the intensity of all I had to go through. Therefore, I am highly offended when God children belonging to Mickey and Minnie feel they have the same rights, permission and access like I do.
An hour in a religious institution and certificate pale in comparison to years of paperwork, interviews and legal proceedings.
By the way, the God children are my cousin’s children on the Republic of Lena Side and cousins on Minnie’s side. One or two are children of Minnie’s best friend. Therefore, you can see that my objections are not due to paranoia but a carefully orchestrated plot to oust me by my very own family members.
Their attachment has become quite annoying as everything they see me with, they want. Mind you, Mickey and Minnie rarely give me anything. Nonetheless, they feel a sense of entitlement anyway.
When they do not get what they want, they become violent. Hence the fender benders I endured. It was all part of their bullying tactics for goodies from the yum-yum tree of Mickey & Minnie.
It is odd, that I am not covetous regarding any of their accomplishments, yet they are constantly trying to “muscle in” on my action all day every day. Over the years, I have found that Mickey & Minnie hold nothing sacred.
They were supposed to immortalize my Granny’s room after she died. Instead, they use that room as if it is the healing spa for every Tom, Dick or Harriet with a few shillings and ill-perceived drama.
I never had godparents until I was old enough to select them myself since I was often persnickety as a child. However, I knew my place in their life and never tried to portray otherwise or mash anyone’s corn as a result. I cannot say any of M&M’s God children have been respectful of my feelings at all.
As a matter of fact, they have been gloating, boastful and brazen about trying to take over. They have even had the gall of complaining when I spend too much time with them. How could this be in a democracy?
I feel as if I am caught up in a nightmare and a parallel universe. This has been partly due to the fact that Mickey and Minnie have not set proper boundaries and have given these persons the impression that this whole situation is a free for all matter.
The bottom line is God children are not equal to adopted children. Godparents are only stand-ins if something happens to their real parents. When they signed on for me it was because my birth mother was indefinitely hospitalized for emotional unwellness, and they had driven my birth father away. No, we are not the same, not now, not ever!
Fighting For My Life Memoir 