Abuse exposed

The day our whole world changed happened August 13, 1978.  I was a few months away from my 6th birthday.  That day started out like any other.  5 kids running around playing having a good time.  My cousin Clinton was there.  He lived with us a lot during my childhood.  He was quite a bit older than me.  But, that didn’t matter, We, my siblings and myself looked at him as a brother. We lived in Kentucky at the time.  My mom was a waitress and daddy was a coal miner.  On this particular hot afternoon Clinton took my brother Roger, who was 9 at the time, swimming at the old swimming hole in the river down the road.  It had rained hard the day before so the water was up. But, Roger was a very strong swimmer so he didn’t hesitate to run down the embankment and dive in.  He was caught in a whirlpool, he couldn’t keep himself above water. It just kept sucking him under. Clinton jumped in and tried to save him. But, the water sucked Roger under one last time and he was gone. Clinton looked for him. Search teams looked for him. It wasn’t until a week later his body was discovered in a beaver dam down river. Our nine year old brother was gone. He was the bravest person I have ever known. You will come to understand that statement when I start sharing stories about him. Our world was turned upside down that day. The strongest of us 5 kids was gone. Life would never be the same without him.