A Childhood Tragedy Under A Mother’s Watch: Part One: 1975-1982 Lowell Massachusetts

A true story chronicling the young life of Catherine Alice Mellen and the mother who harbored a monster. A graphic, in-depth detailed look into the daily life of childhood trauma, family secrets and a young girl who just wanted the abuse to stop. Catherine was five years old when she was subjected to a horrifying evil as fear instilled her everyday life. Being a trophy in a child predators sick world, she turned to a mother who turned her away and looked up to brothers who looked the other way. She pleaded for help, begged to be protected and assumed it was love. It wasn’t long until Catherine’s mother turned her excuses for her boyfriend into hate for her own daughter. A childhood full of inhumane sexual abuse, torture and cruelty would all end with the completion of a well dug out tunnel inside the cellar wall. Knowing she would be silenced for good, Catherine’s desire to live and not be abused anymore would be decided in a split-second decision she made as an eleven-year-old. Would her family be there for her or would she just disappear from the home? This is a true story of one child’s desperation for survival.

Child sexual abuse is a horrifying crime committed on children every day and the least discussed. When the pity is easier to look at than what the communication will tell, we as children are told to move on and forget, as adults we are told to forgive. Yet we live our whole lives trying to forget something we will always remember and search for forgiveness in what is so unforgivable.