First Two Childhood Memories

My Childhood

So these are my childhood stories. I am writing this because I experienced a lot of stuff as a kid, and learned a lot more as an adult than I did as a kid. Overall I had a mild childhood and enjoyed living at home most of the time and being around friends and family.

that's me as a baby, brand new baby

I was born on July 24th, 1987 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Now to the average person there is nothing important about this date, but this date in Utah is a big deal. It's when the pioneers decided "this is the place" where they were going to settle and set up and prosper. I mean bloody hell they have a park that you can go to, to see mormons share their message of how Utah was founded. Most of the time this just meant that it's a state holiday and adults have a three day weekend which meant that adults would take their kids camping to avoid the 100 degree heat that it would usually hit at the end of July in a desert. For me this meant that every year when I would say "it's my birthday this weekend, wanna get together and celebrate?" everyone was camping with their families. Luckily my mom would always try and make it special.

I am the daughter of Catherine K. Breeze and Martin Joe Tuero. This statement alone could be and should be two different posts about who these amazing people are and were. Currently my mom is still alive and lives in Utah, my dad on the other hand has passed away since, but like I said that a different post for a different time. At the tender age of 18 my mom decided to move out of her parents house. She wanted to be independent and free, just like every other teenager dreams of, well back in the 80s that was every teenagers dream. So she moved out, into her boyfriends apartment. Roughly after a year later she found out that she was pregnant with me. She and I are twenty years apart in age a fun and enjoyable relationship we've shared.

So Catherine and Martin were never married. At the time Martin had a bad drinking problem and would abuse Cathy, but sitting on her chest to the point where she couldn't breathe. So she didn't want to commit her life to him and decided to try and raise me on her own.

When I was about two years old my mom found someone that she could seeing being attached to. So she decided to get married to a man by the name of Raphael Bustamante. As they planned out their wedding and what the future lies ahead, they decided that moving to San Jose, California would be a successful venture since Raphael had job lined up. After a short ceremony at Cathy's parents house they moved to California. Life was going well, until Raphael was arrested for molesting a boy in the neighborhood. Raphael was sent to jail for 6 months due to his actions. Upon his release he returned to Cathy and I and we continued with the ways of our life. We all lived in San Jose California for about two to three years before returning to Salt Lake City, Utah

 During the time we lived in San Jose I remember my first memory. My father in law once asked me what is the my earliest memory, at what age are you? Luckily he asked us as a group and I didn't have to answer what my first memory is. The earliest memory I have about my life is a hand going into between my legs and playing in my underwear. I was molested as a child by a roommate that lived with Raphael and Cathy while we were living in San Jose. The guy was a friend of Raphaels and had no place to live, and couldn't speak english, so knowing that Raphael and Cathy were compassionate people wanting to be helpful they allowed him to live with them. In the mornings when I woke up in the morning I would ask anyone who was a awake to turn on cartoons for me, apparently the only one that was awake at the time was the roommate that my family had welcomed into their house. This is what my first memory is. Eventually I went to my mom and spoke to her about what was going on and how it made me feel. Cathy demanded that the roommate leave the apartment immediately. Ralph begged for compassion considering he had no family or other friends to rely on and he couldn't speak any english so he didn't have anywhere else to go. After everything that had happened Cathy thought it would be a good idea to move back to Utah and find work there. So we all returned to Utah.

Sorry for the horrible picture, hard to believe
it this is me and my dad, probably in 1992 or
1993. My mom had this picture on a video
tape and decided to take a picture of it when
it was on the television thus the distortion.
thanks mom at least for the proof that I
saw my dad.

Shortly after moving back to Utah Raphael and Cathy began fighting and arguing over where money should be spent in their home. Cathy wanted to pay bills and be responsible with their money. Raphael wanted to have nice things and new furniture. That was one fight that they would fight about their whole marriage. Upon returning to Utah Martin found out and wanted to keep in contact and send as much as he could to spoil me.  Raphael wasn't happy about that at all. He viewed Martin as a threat and stated that since he was the one raising me and paying for everything that I needed that I couldn't see Martin or his family. Cathy felt bad but knew enough to respect Raphael decision.

This was another traumatic memory for me because I was running around our apartment one morning and didn't realize my parents had been fighting about Martin, so I walked up Raphael and said "I love you daddy" his response in a large yell because he was mad "I'm not your real father" My mom had to have a conversation with me about that because at the time I didn't understand what was happening.

Shortly after this fight Cathy and I moved in with her parents John and Judy Breeze.