Sister Survivors

We met face to face … Not a word was spoken. Both of us meeting our first survivor sister. Not a word was spoken with the initial shock…

Looking into each other’s eyes, with the depth of knowledge and an intensity that you can understand. Volumes of knowledge could never memorialize the depths of compassion and understanding with the smallest of gestures.

You get me. I get you. So much doesn’t even need to be spoken. It’s understood. With mutual perception, acceptance is second nature…

We watched one another order from the menu carefully, safely… Watching for foods that may trigger issues; textures being very important. Safely ordering our drinks 
(Coffee for you, Coke for me) in case something needs washed down and dissolve quickly so as to not gag either of us at the table. Presence of safety, while we observed one another… Keeping demons at bay while we cared for the other.

We spoke of it briefly. Amazed at our mutual issues with food. Softly we spoke of similar elicit nourishment-alarmed by the after-effects, still today and hereafter…

We shared a tiny piece of our stories decades apart, and yet the tricks have not changed their fetishes or desires—same filthy beings. Snippets of our trauma we shared–days upon weeks, months upon years… The realization of identical impurity and fears. These foul, Immoral, corrupt souls.

We spoke some more, this time in tears, astonished that we share the same scenarios, the same degradation, the same beatings and torture. The tribulation of torment was beyond that of a twinge. Our suffering appears this day staining our affliction-ridden face. We hugged and didn’t want to let go. Meeting let us know we would be forever connected and understood.

Tightly embracing with arms of dignity and grace—all was not lost in our history of self-hate…

Our differences don’t matter at all whether it be politics, religion, race, personality, or age. It’s our similarities that count.

Political correctness is not our primary priority, but instead our parallel comparisons…
They make us forever sisters. We survived the unsurvivable which makes us endlessly and everlasting sisters–for our undying perseverance.

Survivor & Sally Frantzen Richardson

www.fightingagainsttrafficking.org | info@fightingagainsttrafficking.org