I sometimes wonder, if I have had an average life, but then I realize I haven’t! I have survived many things, I think that would destroy others and am still here today, at 62, getting ready for 63 come January of 2019.
I had a rough start they say, I almost took out my mother coming into the world at ten pounds nine ounces I am told. Then I suffered through 199 seizures in the first nine months of my life, that stopped suddenly, when my elder brother took the tray off my high chair and I fell head first on my head. I was lucky to survive it, what caused the seizures according to Doctors, I was born with a small flap in my brain, when I fell it reconnected and never let go again.
I survived beatings as a kid from both parents, being ostracized by my elder sibling and all around me, because I didn’t fit in. I struggled for the first four years of schooling, because I had attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, yet I survived it. I managed to learn to read music at 5 years old, took violin lessons, and gave it all up to hide in books and comic books away from the outside world. Was I normal or average, I think not. My mind raced ahead of other kids and adults alike, I saw visions of the future in my dreams and would wake up and see them come through the next day or soon after. Why, I know no,t it just happened to me.
I was put away for two years from age ten to age twelve, because I was told I was emotionally unstable, the truth was I was unwanted. I spent, those two years in a State run institution, being taught self-control, sad but true, I only had one tantrum in two years there and that was when I arrived, because I wanted to go home. I fractured both wrists during those two years trying to be nice to a girl I met, when I fell out of an apple tree trying to get her the apple she wanted.
I learned to roller skate, ice skate, play tennis and basketball in the Center I was in too. I survived it all and ended it by asking to go home, they complied.
I was rejected and looked at as a freak when I returned home and to school, yet I survived it too. I advanced to high school, and got to attend a Technical School my first year, by passing the entrance exam I took in half the time everyone else did it in. I lost my Technical School at the end of that year when my family moved to a new town and I was forced to transfer out, so I could care for my younger siblings. These are all things before 16 years old I survived.
I never finished High School, I dropped out my Junior year because I was suspended for not attending classes and skipping school. My parents refused to go to the school to get me back in, I was told to find a job and Idid. I started work in a factory at 16 years old, and worked 80 hours a week at times for the next three years. When the factory shut down, due to a strike and moved away I joined the Army, failed but got a Honorable Discharge, due to immaturity. Once out I joined the National Guard in my hometown, and looked for work again, living in the YMCA. Was it normal no, but I survived it all.
I then went in the Navy, and survived there 12 years, becoming a Boiler Technician. Married in my first year in and that marriage went 12 years and we had two daughters. It ended in divorce, and my ex-wife tried to jail me for crimes I did not commit and she failed. My daughters I didn’t talk to for fourteen years and still I overcame. I reconnected to them, tried to help them and when they tried to lie to me, or con me out of money I gave up on them and moved on. I have now four natural grandchildren, 2 girls and 2 boys, from them and a second wife who I have been with 25 years, married for 18 of them, and two step grandkids a boy and girl, twins, by her daughter.
I take care of my wife who has suffered from breast cancer since 2006 and still does today and I take her for chemo three times a month. I feed her, help her dress and shower and we live in peace. I survived lung cancer in 2013, by losing a lobe and one third of my right lung. I am still here and surviving folks. hard to believe huh?
I write small books and poems and blogs, I haven’t worked since 2000, due to Naval back injuries and PTSD from the Service and Childhood days. Yet, I survive, I move forward, I don’t surrender. My bills are paid monthly, my home is paid for , my cars are paid for and I pay for all we have, my wife of course can’t work.
Recently, online, one person tried to call me a welfare case, because I live on Disability from the Service and Social Security, when I complained about Trump and his Republicans getting ready to attack and cut back on those programs. why would I get aid, because i spent 16 years defending America, gave my physical and mental health to protect and defend my country and it’s constitution and now Trump wants to destroy what I need to survive, you bet your ass I get mad!
So, you tell me folks, am I a Average American, am I a Welfare case? Before you say anything either way, please, stop and consider all of the above and know this I went back I got a GED for a High School Diploma, I went back to College at 40 years old and got an Associates Degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management. I ran Hotels til I couldn’t anymore, am I a welfare case because I can’t work due to PTSD and back injuries of six herniated discs in my back, you tell me! I think not! I think I am a Survivor!
My Books and Poems can be found on Amazon’s E-books for sale too! Here is the Link:https://www.amazon.com/William-McCurrach/e/B00CQMGTSM/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
My Blog page is what you are reading! https://macattack56.wordpress.com/?p=13616
I welcome comments on my Political Blogs or Personal blogs, I also welcome reviews or support for my books or short stories too. I don’t claim to be a Dan Brown,Stephen King, Robert Ludlum or Doris Kearns Goodwin either. I do short stories and poems is all to try to earn a buck or two for myself and my wife to survive on.!
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