And she had to go to the doctor because her nipples looked exactly like symptoms of breast cancer. This was because Carmen used to pull by them and pinch and twist them. And as well as all these troubles she suffered from normal teenage pressure. She was embarrassed immensely by her mother as she told her friends Constance still wet the bed. She also suffered from verbal abuse as her mother called her clear because she could see right through her. But Carmen replied to this by saying that she only called her clear because he had clear skin and it wasn’t a term of abuse.
She stated that she was also called ugly When she asked her other to by her school picture. This book, I believe unique as all the emotion and pain described in the book isn’t fiction, it’s the truth. Or is it? The million dollar question is: whose crying out the truth and who’s spitting out lies forged as reality.. Is Carmen really innocent and has been savagely accused? Or has Constance’s really suffered in silence in her traumatizing past. As I zoomed closer into the speech made in the interviews and seized seemingly exaggerated facts I really didn’t know who to believe.
Oddly enough nearly all of Carmen’s sons and daughters declared that none of this happened and Constance is just lying. But they may not know what happened as Constance ‘suffered in silence’. And they may have not noticed the abuse that she was suffering as Carmen made up convincing excuses to steer her children away from suspecting anything as her excuse for Constance with bumps was ‘she fell. It’s nothing… ‘ which is believable. Here are some quotations and reasons too justify against Carmen, who I believe may be lying: ‘I will never speak to you again as long as I live’
The picture in which her and her mother attended at her sisters anniversary could prove that they weren’t talking to each other as neither of them were smiling yet they were ready for the photo. ‘I did not smack them and did not want anyone else to hurt them. ‘ Most Jamaicans believe in strict discipline like in the schools where they get harsh beatings. So this is highly unbelievable as they were immigrants. My hair stated falling out… ‘ Signs of stress begging to show. Wetting the bed should have stopped around the age of eleven, but it didn’t because of the stress and anxiety her mother put her in.
And if she did make it all up then how does she remember all the little horrific details which she has to have suffered to have remembered this much. Even I, when I write a short story cannot remember all the details so how can she remember without having experienced it. And why would she make up such cruel lies’she lives in a one million home with a great occupation so she doesn’t need the money. And even if she did why would she use her mother as a bait when she could use hundreds of other people who have died or someone made up with different excuse?
Carmen, in her interview with the Daily mail said that Eastman’s solicitor said that was no reports of this prosecution but they could have been lost. And there was no statement in which the abuse was reported but could just be because back then social workers weren’t as careful on children as they are now. And although the fact that there is no evidence to support Constance’s claims there is no evidence that she I still believe that she was abused and so does her older sister pasty as she agrees with her.
So I conclude with saying that don’t judge a book by its cover. Carmen may have been shy and peering short sightedly but who said no one can’t act. It seems so reckless that a daughter would do such thing to her mother if it wasn’t true. And I also empathise on Constance as if I hurt my foot by hitting it on the door I get so angry and it stings for a long time, so I can’t imagine how Constance must have felt. The true story of a child who suffered in silence by Constance Briscoe.
