What was the worst thing your parents ever did to you?

The horrifying history of how my parents abused me mercilessly as long as they were still alive is far too long and I am sure many readers here will try to say it was all my fault because some rather primitive individuals still claim that parents can do no wrong. Before January 31, 1974, child abuse was still very legal. That was too late to protect me. Once being beaten by my father so badly that one of my fingers was broken certainly is one incident that is beyond shameful, but what I remember the most was when after making me suffer from terrible pain overnight, my swollen finger prompted my father to take me to the Emergency Ward of the local hospital. When we were there, my hand was x-rayed and the fracture was confinned. As the doctor was putting the cast on my hand and arm, he asked how it happened. “Oh, I popped him,” my father said. The doctor’s response shows how the reality for abused children was in those days; he said, “Next time, you’ll do what your father tells you to do!” At no time had anyone said that I had disobeyed, shown disrespect, or any other act that might be seen as deserving of reprimand; in today’s world, both my father and the doctor would have been imprisoned for the things that they did and said.

If anything good came out of that hellish childhood, it was the memory of my mother shouting at me, “You’re the most miserable soul God ever let breathe air!” incessantly as long as I was still living with my parents. Having heard that line almost daily was what caused me to take action after my…