Katherine Valadez:  

Hello to everyone from Wells High School! I was in the class of 1968. I would like to share with all of you, who knew me and my brother Kenneth, a dark secret that has haunted me all my life. Maybe this will shed some light on why we may have seemed so wierd, to many of you. Unfortunately, Ken died in 1997 from an epileptic seizure that was caused by brain trauma from an automobile crash, in the summer of 1968, only a couple months after graduation! You may recall that we were adopted. Our "parents" were very old compared to your parents. They were in all actuality, your grandparents age. We were horribly abused, neglected, starved etc. That is a fact!!! I was ashamed of how I dressed in high school. I wore clothes from Annies second hand store just down the street, on the Sanford Rd. I literally raised my younger "siblings" that were adopted also. She, the mother, did absolutely nothing but beat the crap out of me every day! She used to threaten me with death if I told anyone what she did. The State of Maine used to send social workers to check on the younger kids but never caught on that Ken and I were never to be seen. They never asked about us. When Ken got to be about 13 and grew about a foot he became her ally. I think he thought it was better to be her friend than her enemy. So, he used to join in and beat me up, as well. The "father", used to come in my room at night and touch me and I was so scared I could not tell her because she would have killed me for lying!! He used to beat Ken like a man in a boxing ring because he hated the fact that Ken was gay! In those days, that was an insult to men and their manhood. In fact, it was one of his friends that raped Ken when he was nine and used to walk to play Little League. That was the end of that! After graduation, that same night, Ken never came back home. He was the smart one!! I stayed for almost two years and worked to help support them. I met a man whose cousin married my cousin, from Winchendon, Ma. I married him because I was not allowed to date...Expand for more