Chapter 3

    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 not only  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 poorer and run down places in the area and say, “Thank God we are not like them. We are so much better than they are. It’s 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 grandmother 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  She wanted so bad to prove and redo the damage he had done not only to her but to her mother as well. It would end up becoming the fuel for her passion to help women that had been in abusive relationships as well. In some way she was helping herself by helping these women as well. What she didn't realize at that time was that she would end up running into the same negative and abusive relationships she was helping and saving these women from.