00:00My stepmom, she was physically abusive. I feel like she kind of had no choice, I guess, but to
00:06work. She was the only person that worked, you know, provided for us. I can remember one time
00:10she hit me with an extension cord, like all over my arms, all over my body. I know one time
00:15she
00:15had like busted my nose. She would tell me to lie and say like, oh, say you and your brother
00:19were
00:20playing. I feel like if I spoke up, you know, like, oh, then my mom was going to beat me.
00:29Or
00:29she had Down syndrome. Obviously me immediately, I just fell in love with her. I was excited
00:34to be a big sister. So at one point she took me out of school and I pretty much stayed
00:40home,
00:41you know, full time to like take care of her, take care of my brother. And I know there was
00:45one time when I was 10 years old, I was home. So my mom had taught me how to do
00:49all those
00:49things, how to care for her. And so I was home and I ended up accidentally dropping the pan
00:55of hot grease on myself. And when I got the shirt off, there was like no skin. I had had
01:00a third to fourth degree burns. So I called my mom immediately at work and she was like,
01:06well, you know, you're going to have to sit there basically until your dad or someone gets
01:10home to take you to the hospital. So I just sat in a bathtub of cold water with like no
01:15skin for two hours until my dad finally got home to take me to the ER. I had got like
01:20all
01:20the skin removed from my chest and from the knee down on one of my legs. I had to learn
01:25how to like walk with a brace.
