Chapter One

My first childhood memory was when I was about three-years-old. We lived on the Campus of the University of Illinois, in a family housing complex called Orchard Downs. I was awaken by the sound of my bowling pins (I had a toy bowling set that I loved to play with, which was kept on top of the dryer), falling to the floor.

As I got out of bed, I saw my father choking my mother. I stood there as mother was crying and choking, trying to breath, watching my father do this to her. At the moment that my father noticed me standing there, he stopped choking my mother. She then ran out of the room. I remember that we lived on the third floor of the apartment complex. My mother looked so scared of my father.

The next thing that I saw was my mother opening the balcony glass sliding door and then she was gone. What I didn't realize, was that she had jumped off the third floor balcony because she was in fear of her life.

At the time, I didn't understand what I had just witnessed. Within the next two years of my life, I would come to understand that what I witnessed between my mother and father would not compare to other experiences that my young life would endure.

My parents were married in 1971. My father was in the Army at the time and my mother was madly in love with him. Together they had two children. My sister, Latricia Michelle (she goes by Michelle), was born one year after my parents were married.

At the time of Michelle's birth, my parents lived on the Marine Corps Base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Before my birth, my parents