Mary J O’Brien submitted the following:
I grew up in an adopted home. I was raised by a childless middle aged Catholic couple. After being abused by my mother and pretty much ignored by my father, I was in and out of special schools. I started running away and acting up. Because I’m legally blind RI became desperate to put me in a school that promised to keep run aways. They sent me to Elan when I was 12. I was there five years before finally winding up at Perkins School for the Blind.
During my five years at Elan I was abused for acting up, being socially immature and living in a fantasy world. When I was 15 I was placed in a foster home where I was sexually abused. I also got into trouble for stealing cigarettes at school.
So I was pulled back in to Elan for another two years while they argued with my parents about where I was to go next.
I wrote a book about my life under the pen name Susan Kelly. The book is called “Seeking Love and Acceptance on a Path of Adversity”. However I called Elan “Edenwood” and put it in Vermont. I regret this.
The WWASP Diaries 