A Woman's Flight Chapter 5

She made herself a promise to her unborn child that she would never have to live in a house of abuse and dysfunction. She needed and wanted to believe this more than anyone. She could still feel the pain racking her skull and mind thinking back to those days when she had to live under the rule and dominion of her overbearing father. She wanted to prove to her family and to all of the people that sat back and watched and knew that she was being abused and tormented at the hands of her father, but more importantly she wanted to prove herself to her father as well. She never wanted to make the same mistakes that her mother made in allowing any man to dominate and control her as completely as her father had controlled and dominated her mother. She wanted more than anything to prove that she could be the one to break the cycle. She didn’t realize just how much she wanted to believe it.

Rebecca Thompson began her life into a lower middle class family in Texas. Even though they never really grew up rich she could already see the prejudice and the dysfunction in her family but in the community as well. At a young age she became very aware of the social conflicts and constructs that she saw growing every day.

She remembers walking through a predominantly poor neighborhood that was filled with all different types of black and Mexican families and seeing the destitution first hand. There was a part in her heart that reached out to them and wanted to help but she just didn't know how. She will never forget the day she was walking with her mother down the street in one of the more poor and run down places in the area and say, “Thank God we are not like them. We are so much better than they are. Its just very clear. If they wanted to do better for themselves they would just move. I wish that they would just bulldoze their houses already and get it over with. This whole area is just an eye sore. They could use it for so much better than having it taken up by these dirt rats.”

Her mother must have seen the look of shock on her face because she changed the subject but it was the first time Rebecca had heard her mom openly use that phrase or in such a negative way. Her grand mother wasn't any better. She was actually worst. It was then that she made it up in her mind that she had to leave Tyler and her family in general. She just couldn't sit by and listen and watch her family openly mistreat people without feeling the urge to say something.

She would even hear her mom gossiping and saying negative things about the people in church as well. Her family was never really religious, but they would at least go to church on the major holidays. Even with that said her mother almost had something negative to say about someone and would gladly help spread any neighborhood gossip she happened to hear. Rebecca was the complete opposite of her mom in that respect.

She actually hated knowing she was purposely doing anything that might hurt someone else and she was very sensitive and hating seeing other people cry as well. She would often allow people to mistreat and abuse her growing up simply because she didn't want to say anything that might hurt their feelings even if they were hurting hers.

She especially had a sensitivity to the people who she felt were being mistreated or were being taken advantage of. She often wondered if she even came from the same family or the same mom. On top of that she knew that the people at the church had to know about the abuse but they didn’t say anything. They were all too afraid of her father. His name was Richard Thompson. He would become the single most important influence in her life over the years and even after his death.