Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Onika's P.O.V.
Due to being abused and often neglected by both of my biological parents, I ran away from home at the very young age of 7! I know that's hard to believe, but when you're too busy getting drunk and high on a daily basis, sometimes it's hard to keep up with a 7 year old!
One particular night, my mom and dad were so high, that they both were passed out in the middle of our living room floor. They forgot to feed me that evening. So, I walked out of our apartment at 1 am searching for food. A woman saw me and pulled her car over. "Little girl! Where's your parents at?!", she asked.
"At home. They did drugs and forgot to give me something to eat again", I told her with tears pouring down my face. She put me in her car and took me to the nearest police station. The police gave me food. But once they found out I was being raised by two alcoholic, drug addicts, my parents lost custody of me. Child Protective Services placed me in a nice woman's home named Cicely Tyson....
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
(Momma Tyson💁🏽♀💖)
Momma Tyson was famous in Chicago for taking in abused and neglected children for over 30 years. When I was brought to her, there were three other kids already living there. Lauren, who was 7 like me, Christopher, who was 9, and Solange who was 11.
Lauren and I were close. But Chris and Solange would always pick on us! No matter how bad Momma Tyson would whoop them for being bullies, they still would torture Lauren and I. Solange really hated me because she always said I was Momma Tyson's favorite! But Momma Tyson just catered to me more because I had special needs.
I developed mentally slower than other kids my age. I wasn't dumb nor was I retarded like Chris and Solange always called me! It's just that I was so emotionally and verbally abused that it took a toll on me mentally. So much so that 10 years later at the age of 17, I still was mentally like a child. Even though my body was built like a grown ass woman..
Chris was no longer living with us. And it wasn't because he was 19. It was because at the age of 16, he started running with a gang and selling drugs. So Momma Tyson told him to stay his ass out there in the streets. She couldn't allow him to put the rest of us in danger due to his lifestyle.
