November 6, 2025

My Birth

I was born in August in California; to a single mother, Betty, of two other small children. A six-year-old girl, Kimberly (Kim); and a four-year-old boy, Timothy (Tim). We all have different fathers. Although, for years, Tim and I were told that we had the same father.

I’ve never met my father. I am the product of an extramartial affair. I don’t know how my mother and father met. But he was married and had three children. He was also, as I’m told, an abusive alcoholic. So far as I know, he doesn’t even know that I exist. Although, to hear my mother tell the story, he took one look at me, decided I was too much of a “freak”, declared there was no way I could be his, and left forever.

I was born breech and hydrocephalic. My skull was soft. When I breathed it inflated and deflated like a child blowing up a balloon. I had to wear a protective helmet until I was two years old; and my skull hardened except for two remaining soft spots on the crown of my head.

The doctors placed a shunt in my head to drain the excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). And the shunt was removed at some point. Although, I don’t know when that was as I’ve never been told.

Hydrocephalus:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hydrocephalus/symptoms-causes/syc-20373604