Mother Cracked My Skull With A Broomstick

I was fourteen years old when my mother cracked my skull with a broomstick, and three-quarters of a century later I still have the dent in the middle of my forehead, at the hairline, to prove it. Thwap and crack. I wonder if her blow damaged me?

Until I was physically and mentally mature enough to restrain her, which was when I was in my thirties (by hold her hands so that she could not hit me) my mother habitually hit me across the chest, swinging her arm back at me in a sort of reverse roundhouse punch to knock the wind out of me. And if she placed her blow just right, or wrong from my point of view, she would knock me off my feet. That taught me not to follow her around asking for food, warmth, clothing, what have you. What kind of person makes a sport of knocking a defenseless child off of their feet? Why did my father, sister, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and neighbors all turn a blind eye to this ghastly abuse? And no one noticed the welts on my legs and rear end from mother not infrequently whipping me with her belts?

It never occurred to me to ask for help.

The day that my mother cracked my skull with a broomstick I had been washing the dishes and had to rest for a moment because I felt hot and cold and dizzy and sweaty. I just felt weird. My mother objected to any pause in my work and she cracked me over the head with a broomstick to vent her displeasure at me. I felt a gooey sensation in my nether regions and ran to the bathroom where I found a red stain growing in my underpants. This was my first menstrual period. I called for my mother and she shoved a menstrual pad into my hands. I had no idea what to do with it. Grudgingly she gave me two safety pins and gestured for me to pin the pad to my underpants. That is all I remember. Except that later mother gave me one of her stained, stretched out sanitary napkin belts, and more safety pins to tighten it to my waist.

Mother Habitually Hit Me Across The Chest And Once Cracked My Skull With A Broomstick