inspired by a poster at youthontherock.com, i am answering the question, “What was the most traumatic event experienced in your childhood?”
i remember being forced down into a bathtub full of ice cubes and water and then rushed to the hospital.
i don’t recall how old i was, or whatever cause or came from that story.
but i remember that tub full of ice, and how scared everyone was.
i also remember once dad hurt his arm pretty badly — that scared me a lot, as well.
neither one of those count as “most traumatic”, though.
the thing that must count as the single most traumatic is when i came into the living room, where mom and dad were watching television, because i couldn’t sleep, or had a bad dream, or something.
anyway — i remember seeing a girl on the tv — she was sad and beautiful, but something was…… wrong.
(i think i was about 7 or 8 here…)
i asked mom and dad what was wrong with the “pretty girl” — and they told me that she was dead.
i asked how she died.
they told me that she had committed suicide — which i had never heard of.
i asked what that meant, and they informed me that she had killed herself.
that was the first time i ever fell in love with someone.
i cried for what feels like hours, as i think back on it.
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