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FULL NAME: Lauren Jade Ruskey |
 Carolyn was halfway through her pregnancy when she learned of her husband's womanizing and infidelity. In fact, he'd been keeping his mistress comfortable in an apartment nearby, the same way he had been nearly the entire duration of their relationship. The woman, the owner of a beauty salon in Suffolk County, also had Joe's helping hand to keep her business afloat. The man that had swept her off her feet and gotten her pregnant had been living three different lives: the one he had at home, the one he had with his favorite mistress and the one he lived with the other women that caught his attention. Working all through her pregnancy, Carolyn was forced to buy everything for their new arrival as her husband refused to "waste his hard-earned money on another mouth to feed; that's the wife's job." Granted, he took responsibility for paying the mortgage, what Joe should have taken owned up to and quietly didn't was the war he'd begun behind the bedroom doors. It started with a few mean words. Those mean words escalated to berating, then the verbal abuse turned psychological. All the stress was enough to send Carolyn into premature labor. On August 16, 1985, two months before she was due, she gave birth to a tiny baby girl that she named Lauren. Her newborn spent the first several months of her life in the hospital incubator but she fought tooth and nail to live. Carolyn was so impressed that the first time she was allowed to hold her new daughter, she hoped that her little one would exhibit that toughness for whatever lay ahead. After all, she knew from experience that the world wasn't even close to what it was cracked up to be. This lesson only proved itself more true when during the first month of maternity leave, Joe's verbal and psychological abuse turned physical. It would remain as such, especially after he submitted her resignation to the hospital, subjecting her to the life of a stay-at-home mom. In his home. Lauren was a quiet girl, often found playing alone when she was younger. Sometimes, her mother wondered whether she was just shy or had been born with a natural sense that her home wasn't the place to test the waters. She grew up with a front row seat to her father's constant hurricane. He stumbled in drunk often, smelling like booze and other women. His hand had its own gravitational pull to her mother, it seemed. As she grew older and learned how to defend, Lauren herself was also privy to getting hurt. It was commonplace by the time she was 10. But she never let on that living life as a Ruskey was hell. People had their suspicions but nobody ever dared question a well-respected member of the community like Joe Ruskey. His daughter learned how to express her emotions in other ways. |
She was a straight-A student and would graduate high school as the valedictorian, finding refuge in diving into schoolwork. She wrote, drew and painted, learned how to create worlds for herself to live in while the real one turned to shit all around her. But following a nasty incident just before her 18th birthday, Lauren was ready to break out and promised to do everything in her power to bring her mother along. But her mother refused, fearing what her husband would do and who would chase them. The argument between the women was far more gruesome and hurtful than anything dished out by the man of the house. On her 18th birthday, Lauren abandoned the family that could spare no mercy for her. She traveled around the country for a while, going so far as to change her name and appearance to ensure her safety. The sweet girl from Long Island had changed into a raven-haired, leather-clad, pierced and frail-looking stranger. From New Orleans, to St. Louis, to Vegas, to Northern California - she'd gone far, taking random jobs and meeting people who were much kinder to her than anyone else, living her life from city to city for the better part of 3 years. Lauren never stayed long before she settled in Seattle, Washington in 2006. There, she found some stability and had begun to shed some of her protective layers. She was 24, living in a quaint apartment in the city, attended the University of Washington, working part-time at a record store and interning with the Seattle Mariners. Her short hair was growing out again and the black she'd dyed into it had started to lose its depth, her natural brown color beginning to appear. Things were looking up. It had to be fate for her to discover the truth of what she'd left behind. Through the Facebook page of an old neighbor, Lauren was surprised to hear of her father's sudden death. The man that so many times stumbled his way home had shown up to work still drunk and met a violent demise in a freak accident on a job site. Her mother, now a widow, finally escaped him by having never left. Lauren returned home to Long Island in 2010 to find her mother, broke and sick. The woman that bore abuse and was the only source of affection she'd ever had was on the verge of having her home confiscated by the bank and in a world of medical debt, due to her recent diagnosis with the degenerative disease, ALS. Their reunion was painful and heartfelt but she knew immediately what needed to be done. Lauren took the reigns and walked her mother out of the front door. They now live in Tarrytown, New York, in a three-bedroom apartment comfortable enough for them and Lauren's aunt. Her mother's sister reconnected with the ailing woman shortly before Joe's death and took up the responsibility of caring for her sister, hoping her niece would return. With Lauren being the head of the household, she has taken it upon herself to make her mother's final days memorable and better than her previous 26 years. other LIKES: writing, music, the smell of grass at the park, photography, art, Five Guys, Jamba Juice, New York, exploring, movie marathons. |