She Was Betrayed By Her Foster Mom

Unfiltered Stories

In today's episode of Unfiltered Stories, we have the privilege of hearing from Teaira Curry as she shares her profound journey with us. Teaira's story begins with significant challenges early in life, when she was separated from her mother at the tender age of 4. Placed in the foster care system, Teaira found herself in an environment where she faced heartbreaking violations of safety and trust.   Join us as Teaira openly shares her experiences and the inspiring path of healing she has embarked upon. Through speaking her truth, Teaira aims to protect and empower others, shining a light on the critical importance of safeguarding children and supporting those who have endured trauma. Her story is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of healing. Teaira's voice offers hope and solidarity to anyone who has faced adversity, reminding us that it is possible to reclaim one's life and flourish in the face of even the most painful challenges.   #unfilteredstories #survivorstories #survivalstory #trauma #familysecrets   Find more about Teaira here:  Website: www.Cu-Nw.com   IG- Business @ChangedUpNowWhat @TeairaCurry  FB: @Teaira Eaton-Curry  TikTok: @TheCurryCrew  YT: @ChangedUpNowWhatPodcast  Podcast: https://anchor.fm/cunw   Thank you for watching Unfiltered Stories! We offer a platform for our guests to speak openly about their life stories and journeys, shedding light on the challenges they faced and the resilience they've shown.   Our mission is to raise awareness about survivors by delving into their stories, exploring the impact of their experiences, and how they've managed to heal and rebuild their lives.  By sharing these stories, we aim to break the silence surrounding those challenging memories and create a compassionate environment.   🌅 FOLLOW US 🌅  Facebook ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredFB  Tiktok ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredTT  Snapchat ➮ https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredSN

Transcript

00:00My name is Tierra Curry and my story deals with assault and abuse from the time that I was a

00:06child

00:06until the encounter that I had as an adult. When I was in Head Start, I had lived with my

00:10mother

00:11at that time. My mother was born very, very bad. So when I was four years old, my mom's neighbor

00:19lured me next door with a Gumby toy and he threw that Gumby toy under the house so quickly and

00:26began to assault me, touching me in inappropriate places. And as a four-year-old at that time, I

00:33didn't actually know what was happening at first. It caught me by surprise. I had never had that

00:38happen to me before, so I didn't know what to think or feel. It was an eerie feeling because nobody

00:43else

00:44had done that. After he attacked me, I went back home. I did not tell anybody at that time. I

00:50was

00:51just so young, I didn't even know how to process what had happened. And so my mother was sold out

00:57on

00:57phone. So she would do these, what we call it, you know, where she would leave for a week or

01:02two,

01:03party. She was in the entertainment industry too, so sometimes she'd be out of town traveling on the

01:07road with the celebrities back in that time, but she also would go use. And so I would then be

01:14left

01:14with my stepfather. He would be the one to help me get dressed and things of that nature. She was

01:20stunned out pretty bad. And then when she would come home, I had to witness my stepfather beating

01:26her, you know, because she was out for so long, you know, it's like right then, then there's a fight.

01:31Even though I was young, I've always loved my mother because, you know, I was taught about God and I

01:37felt

01:38like if he could forgive and if miracles exist and he's such a thing, God, my mother can be delivered.

01:44I never saw a thing. I just saw my mother. I forgave her. I never held that against her. If

01:52anything,

01:52I just wanted a better tomorrow, even if it was during visitations or when she come back, even if

01:58she only spent one day, I just wanted to be mama's little girl. And so the day that I was

02:03taken from my

02:03home, I was still about four years old. We had one of those houses where in between the living room

02:10and the dining room, there was like a sliding door to kind of seclude the living room and dining room

02:14area. I was sitting in the living room and I was on the recliner watching some TV show. All of

02:21a sudden

02:21it's like SWAT came in my house. At four, I didn't know what it was because they didn't look like

02:26regular police, but they had helmets on like black gear and all this protective wear and big guns.

02:32So they just came in and they raided the house. In the dining room area, it was my mother,

02:38my stepfather, and a bunch of people. So they were having what I thought was a party,

02:43but there was use. So they cleared everybody out of the house. They kept telling my mom,

02:48my mom and my stepdad to lay down on the ground with their hands behind their head. And my mom

02:52was

02:52yelling, I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant. But they weren't playing. You know, they got the doll pointed to her

02:56and I'm looking at all of this. So when they finally heard her say that she was pregnant,

03:00they had her to turn a different kind of way. But I had a cousin down a few doors down

03:07the street

03:07that was dealing with her own issues. But she called my foster mom and told her that, hey,

03:13they're going to take years away. So she came and she got me. The last thing I remember from that

03:19day

03:20was just looking out of the rear as I was leaving with my foster mom, looking and just seeing lights,

03:26a bunch of police lights and cars. And, and that was it. That was the end of me being with

03:31me.

03:31This is kind of hard because I've never shared this, you know, this part publicly, but I'm here for it.

03:38I don't know what I felt. I know that I probably had feelings of sadness because my mother is being

03:44told to lay down. She's screaming, you know, I'm pregnant. There's guns. There's police and just

03:50confusion. Like what the heck is going on? Like my mom, literally the day that the raid happened,

03:56my mom literally got back off the road and got back off of whatever bench she was on. So everything

04:01just happened so fast. And I, I would imagine I felt sad because when I first went, I spent time

04:08with my great grandmother, who was the absolute angel to me. So that kind of felt good, you know,

04:15cause that's my grant. He always bailed me out of trouble, taught me about prayer, taught me about

04:20God, cooked me good meals. So that part was good. But from what I was told from my foster mom,

04:27she was too up in age to keep me. And so I would have to be rearranged. So at that

04:32point,

04:32I didn't too much like that. Cause I thought it was just going to be me and my great grandmother

04:36until,

04:37until the end of time. As far as trying to transition from not being with my mother,

04:42I can't really say that I noticed a difference right off the bat because I was very used to

04:47her being gone so long, but they were just trying to explain to me, even at a young age,

04:53cause they always say I was so mature as a youngster, but they were trying to explain to me the

04:57situation and that, you know, I may not be seeing her for a long time and things like that. So

05:01that

05:01was a little disheartening, but by her being gone already, that, that, that wasn't too much of a

05:07I had younger siblings and my foster mom, at first she tried to get all of us, but the other

05:14kids

05:14wearing diapers. And so she couldn't take everybody. So she finally settled on me and two of her younger

05:20brothers. It started out okay, but then everything started getting real strict. Abuse started happening

05:26and it was just like, I started growing up real fast. It wound up being very hard. So there by

05:33the

05:33time I was in kindergarten, so about five years old, and that's when the assault started happening

05:38with my foster mom, boyfriends, and friends. There's something that me and my husband like to call

05:43throughout our movement, cheap thrills and feels. And that's when a predator will like try to tickle a

05:51kid and think like they're playing. But there's a lot of brushing up against the genitals by accident.

05:56So at first it was a lot of that happening, but then I was shown throughout the course of the

06:02molestation, I was shown them. Red X magazines showed how to kiss. I was beat by some people in

06:10the foster care with extension cords coming out of the tub. The only thing I can say, because most people

06:17have not experienced that, but it hurts really bad to be coming out of water. So if you ever like

06:22belly flopped

06:23in a pool, just imagine that time like 10. So I would have big, big weps over my body, my

06:30back, my arms,

06:31my front, my legs, trying to shield, you know, but I would get beat. One time my foster sister made

06:38me eat

06:38raw chicken. You know, I was a kid. She wanted to kind of hang out with the guys, and I

06:43kept bugging her

06:43that I was hungry. So she reached in the refrigerator, grabbed me some old chicken, and I was like, well,

06:48this got this, got these, these fuzzies on it, and this green and white stuff on it, and she's like,

06:52you better

06:52eat it. So I had to take a bite, and once she got back on the phone, and I hid

06:58it, I hid the rest of

06:59the food under the couch, and she had her boyfriend brought her KFC that day. So things like that

07:04happened. Also, that same step there that used to watch me when my mother was on badges, sometimes he

07:11would come and babysit, and one time in particular when he came over, he molested me, and because he was

07:17strung out as well, is, you know, what was happening. Not excusing, but he was off and on.

07:23So, so he said, while he was molesting me, he said, you remind me of your mother. I just felt

07:29so bad

07:29about it that, you know, I kind of went maybe in my room and hid for the while. He apologized

07:36and said

07:36he'd never do that again, and I've never had that happen again. When I would try to tell my foster

07:41mom, she wouldn't believe me. Her thing was, why is it that every man that comes in this house

07:46have to want you? One time, her friend actually, you know, got up at night, came into my room,

07:52lifted up my gown. Me completely. I had a discharge. Went over to my great-grandmother's

07:58house and asked my aunt some type of question dealing with the female anatomy, and that sparked

08:03the red flag that something was not going on right with me at the foster home. So my great-grandmother

08:08made my foster mom take me to the hospital, and there, that's when they realized that,

08:13you know, that I had been sexually assaulted, that there was some things going on. They took

08:18me to see a psychiatrist, and I was a little, little girl then, maybe around seven. And I

08:23remember the doctor asking me, what does a p*** look like? And I said, like a banana, but black.

08:29That doctor had no more questions, but it was, there was nothing wrong with me. So the people

08:35that were assaulting me, they were like friends of the foster parent, like her boyfriends and things

08:41like that. My stepdad, you know, he did it that one time, but it was inside of the foster home.

08:48My foster parent was at work. One time, you know, there was a female neighbor that assaulted me as

08:55well. She was from down the street, and so that was very different. One of the friends of the foster

09:01parent, you know, he came into my room, it was late at night, and I had on a long gown,

09:06very long gown down to my ankles. He came in the room, and he woke me up, and he was

09:12saying that,

09:13you know, you're a tease, and things like, you know, you don't meet, it was like, you don't even have

09:18any panties on. And at that time, my foster mom, I only had two pair of pants, so I was

09:24taught

09:24always wash them, hang them up, let them dry. So, but that was none of his business to know that,

09:30like, he was calling me a tease because I didn't have on any undergarments under my gown. He just,

09:35you know, forced his way inside of me, told me to be quiet. Pretty much, you know, after that,

09:41I wound up staying with my great-grandmother for a while until he was removed from the house because

09:48he had moved in. The abuse happened with him, I would say, I told my great-grandmother and my aunt,

09:55which is her daughter, who stayed with my great-grandmother. I told them both what

09:59happened. So, my great-grandmother told me that I needed to start journaling, and I didn't just tell

10:04her what happened with him, but I told her about what happened with the guy that showed me the

10:11Rated X magazine. I told her about what happened with my stepdad, and she said, you know, you need

10:17to journal, and you need to start writing everything that's happening to you, the dates and everything.

10:22I would say she kind of tried to keep me a little bit more when she realized that was happening,

10:27and I'm grateful that she told me to write because it was very cathartic because I started

10:32turning the, like I would say, kind of rebellious, just so much anger was built up inside of me.

10:38You know, I wanted to physically harm my foster care mother. I wanted to harm the people that was

10:43doing things to me. In my mind, I was plotting ways that I could, you know, do something harmful

10:49to them because I was tired of it. I was tired of going through bullying at school. I'd leave from

10:56an

10:56abusive home to school trying to get some relief. Can't do that because I'm getting bullied about my

11:00hair or what I'm wearing. Then I come back home and got to worry about it. There's somebody over

11:05there that's going to assault me again, or I'm going to get beat again. It was a lot going on,

11:11so the

11:11writing helped me to release a lot of the stress. The writing and music, that's how I started

11:17becoming a writer. So at first, I would write poetry. Of course, I would journal what happens.

11:22I would write poetry, and then I say, well, music is kind of like poetry. It just got a little

11:27beat

11:27to it. So then I started writing songs and then short stories and praise and stuff like that, and

11:33it really helped me. I would get lost into my music, lost into my journaling, my diary. Well, we had

11:38kind of moved to Atlanta when I was 13 years old, when I moved to Atlanta. So it was a

11:43fresh start,

11:44you know. When I turned 18, I went back to my home state, which is where my grandmother was before

11:50she cramped. I just felt like I had to go back, and I had a job there. So I worked

11:55hard. I was in

11:56sales. I was also in fast food industry, but I played hard. I was trying to become an ex-American

12:03idol or Vinny's making the band type of girl. I just went after my dreams, but I just wanted to

12:09have a boyfriend. I wanted that first boyfriend to become my husband, and I wanted to have kids

12:16to give them the life that I did not have. So I literally hit the ground running. At 18, I

12:21started

12:21drinking. I started smoking, and I worked hard, but I prayed hard. So that kind of messed up my judgment

12:32on guys. You know, I just thought, hey, I'm a faithful young lady. I got my head on my shoulders.

12:37I just

12:37graduate from high school. I'm focusing on my career. Why would anybody want to cheat on me or

12:42do me wrong or anything like that? So at first, it was pretty good at 18. When I came back

12:48from my

12:49home state to Atlanta, I went downtown with my girls. I was at a red light. It was a car

12:55with two guys in

12:56it, and they were kind of flirting with me and my two friends. The driver, long story short, we exchanged

13:01phone numbers, and we began talking. Right off the bat, you know, I noticed that he had an accent,

13:07and I was just like, oh, you know, this is different. I have a Jamaican friend. So we started

13:12dating, going out to eat. I went to his house a couple of times, and he starts to introduce me

13:19to

13:19his family. So older women had told me that if a guy introduces his family, that's a good sign if

13:26he

13:26wants to marry you. So I was excited. I said, this might be the guy. So he takes me downtown

13:32to meet

13:32his cousin at his job. His cousin would seem cool. He was like, do you have any friends? And I

13:37was like,

13:38yeah. And he said, okay, how about we have a little double date, a little party at my ex-boyfriend's

13:43house? And we set that up. We got off of work around seven o'clock, and we head straight to

13:47my

13:48boyfriend's house. As soon as I get to the door, I'm greeted with breakfast. He was like, you know,

13:53I'll go ahead and eat, relax. I'm going to go and pick up my cousin from the train station. I'll

13:57be

13:57back. I said, okay. So the breakfast drink tasted a little funny, but I figured because they're from

14:02a different culture, it might just be how things taste. Even my friend said it tasted a little

14:08weird. I gave her a sip, but we didn't think none of it. My boyfriend and his cousin comes back.

14:13They have the alcohol and everything. Now we're drinking beer. We're smoking. Me and my friend was

14:19talking. Him and his cousin was talking. We were just having a good time, I thought. So me and my

14:25boyfriend, we leave off at some time during the party to go into a different room and to become

14:30intimate. And while we became intimate, I blacked out. And when I came to, his cousin was on top of

14:37me. He didn't have any clothes, no protection, just completely. I push him off of me. I grab the

14:46covers, wrap them around because I don't have any clothes myself. I go looking for my friend

14:50and I go looking for my boyfriend. They're in a totally different room down the hall.

14:55He was under the covers. He had a shirt on from what I could see. My boyfriend was sitting in

14:59a

15:00chair beside the dead, fully clothed, shoes on and everything. So I pull him to the hallway to let him

15:05know what's happening. He didn't give me any reaction. And so again, I repeated myself and now he

15:11starts acting as if he cares. And he's like, you know what? I got to get this done. So out

15:17of my

15:17house, take a shower and relax. I'll be back. So that's what I did. All victims know when that

15:22happens, you feel disgusting. You just want to wash up and get that off of you. So I'm starting to

15:27tell

15:27my friend what happened. And this time I blacked out again. And I didn't get up until around 12,

15:3212 midnight, one o'clock that next morning. And as I was taking her home, she just said,

15:37T, you've been set up. And it was the most eerie ride ever taking her home. But she told me

15:42that.

15:42I went home. You know, I was just depressed. They stayed in my room for a while, called off work.

15:48I couldn't get in touch with the guys, female friend or the cousin anymore. Finally, the guys

15:53answered upon him. I tell them, look, because at age 18, I thought age was the worst thing you could

15:58get. I said, if we take a test and it's negative, I'll just dismiss everything. They agreed for taking

16:03an AIDS test. My mother calls me. She's in a whole different state. She called me. She said she just

16:07felt something wrong. Finally told her what was going on. She said, no, forget that AIDS test with

16:13the police involved and get a rape kit. So I did. I did just that. The detective came, picked me

16:18up

16:18to take statement. And he also took me to the hospital for a rape kit. I'm glad that I got

16:23the

16:23kit done because I found out that I had HPV or human papillomavirus and that it was affecting my

16:30cervical cells. So I had cancerous cervical cells. The officer that was taking statement,

16:34he kept asking, was there anybody else here at the party that saw what happened? And I kept telling

16:39him my friend was there. And about the third time I said my friend was there, he said, ma'am,

16:43that is not your friend. And that's how I found out that all three of them were in on the

16:47stuff.

16:48You know, she had a reputation at work for being loose and everything, but I didn't want to judge.

16:52I didn't think she was capable of doing that to another woman. Once I get the kit done and find

16:57out

16:57what's happening, I just knew my life was over. I was like, this is God punishing me for fornicating.

17:02I wasn't married. I was just sleeping around with people. So a different friend of mine,

17:07a male friend, he went with me to these procedures because I had to get procedures done every like

17:11three months to check the cervical cells, the cancerous cells. So he came and after one of the

17:17appointments, when they said it was getting worse, he proposed to me. And I'm like, what? Are you

17:21kidding me? I may not be able to have your kid. And I might die. He didn't care. He proposed.

17:27And about a year and a half into the marriage, there was no more HPV, no more cancerous cervical

17:33cells. The doctors cannot medically tell me how things changed so quickly, you know, from having

17:39the diagnosis to now everything was normal. But I served God and I know it was nothing but the

17:44grace of God that took that for me. And we have eight beautiful children, so nothing's wrong with

17:49the cervix. And that's when I decided once I was able to heal mentally, physically from all the abuse,

17:55you know, from childhood on up to that point, that's when I was able to create a move and help

18:00other people. I am 37 years old now. After I was able to heal enough to tell the story from

18:06a place

18:06of power, I had decided to use what I have and to speak, kind of let let people know about

18:12the red

18:13flags in relationship so that they could avoid those type of things. So I became a relationship

18:19coach, a speaker, an author. I first took to Facebook, you know, and I would just come on

18:25twice a week just giving gems. The DMs and the love that I got from people saying, hey, this happens

18:30in the two, it was just incredible. I feel like once something happens to you, once you overcame that

18:36bridge, you should turn back around, hold your hand out and help somebody else cross that same bridge

18:40that you once had trouble crossing. I am happily married. It's been 18 years and counting since all

18:47of this because the, you know, me being with my husband, that happened shortly after, you know, we

18:53were engaged for a while for about 40 years, you know, after that assault took place. And then we got

18:59married. So we have eight beautiful kids. My oldest is 13. My baby is one. So ironically, the same guy

19:08that went with me to the hospital for moral support when I first found out that I had HPV and

19:14cancerous fails. He's my husband today. So we dated, we were engaged after that for four years. And now

19:22look, 18 years and counting. My advice to anybody out there that's listening and going through trauma.

19:29First of all, my heart goes out to you because I hate that this has to happen to some people,

19:34to anybody. I want you to first of all, know that it was not your fault. It's not about what

19:39you wear,

19:40what you wore, your personality. You were too trusting. You don't have the mind of a predator.

19:46So you weren't thinking that. I want you to know that you're not alone. It's not your fault. Even

19:50though it can feel degrading and humiliating, I need you to open up. And even if you don't do it

19:56on

19:56a public platform yet, at least have a friend or a confidant, somebody that you can trust in to open

20:03up to. Now there's plenty of organizations that will let you be anonymous, you know,

20:08in what's going on. But if you can find old friends to talk to that will listen, please get help.

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