The Gorilla Chase: Chapters of My Life

By Tiffany Simone Simmons

This is a collection of memories of abuse as a child. As a family, we upheld a picture perfect façade to the outside world. To other people, we looked like the Cleaver's. This book peels back the layers of what people saw, and exposes what really happened; sickness, pedophilia, trauma and abuse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9780359225606

Book preview

thoughts.

Chapter 1

I was the baby of my mom’s first set of children. I was born during the time when a woman having a baby would actually stay in the hospital for a whole week and then some if there was extenuating circumstances.  Every moment I spent in the nursery, I was being held by all the nurses. The first time my mother went to the nursery to see me after I was born, the nurses gave her a bit of a hassle. They didn’t believe I was her child. I was born with a head full of long curly brown hair; two eyes, two ears, ten fingers, ten toes; and perfect according to my mother.  The problem was I looked like all the rest of the White babies in the nursery. Thank God for matching ID bracelets. For the week that we were in the hospital, I was constantly in someone’s arms. Mommy swears that’s how I became spoiled.

All my siblings were a number of years older than me. I had one sister, Diane, (she was about 7 years old and the oldest), two brothers: Donny and Tony. They ranged in ages from 6 – 4 years old. Mommy would tell me stories of how mischievous they were; they got into everything, you decide…

You know how all children want to do that special thing for their mother on Mother’s Day?  Well, so did my siblings. As my mother lay in the bed, Diane ran to her and begged her to stay in bed because she, Donny and Tony wanted to cook and serve Mommy breakfast in bed. Mommy agreed to it. Diane stirred around in the kitchen with my brothers like they knew what they were doing. Finally breakfast was done and ready to be served to Mommy. They placed everything nice and neat on a breakfast tray and served Mommy in bed. They made Mommy close her eyes and Diane placed the tray on Mommy’s lap. Together in a sing-song kind of way, they said, open your eyes! Mommy opened her eyes to the surprise of her life. Mommy had biscuits, eggs, fried gold fish, and a fried star fish on her plate. Yes, they fried their pets; went fishing in the fish bowl, yes they did! Oh and by the way, the kitchen had flour from one end of the kitchen to the other. Eggs on the floor, grease all over the stove, and dirty dishes everywhere. Mommy said, she was grateful at the thought, but absolutely dreaded the cleanup.

These children really believed that saying, ‘all for one and one for all’. Back then, the cure-all was this purple medicine call Mercuracone. It was used on wounds, cuts, and scrapes. It was a purple liquid in a small brown bottle with a circular cloth applicator. When you dabbed it on a wound, it made a wax-like covering over the injured area. Mommy kept it on the top of the refrigerator out of harm’s way or so she thought.  Mommy said her three little darlings pushed the kitchen table over to the refrigerator, put a chair on the kitchen table, climbed onto the table and then onto the chair. They got the Mercuracone and decided to drink it.  They ran to Mommy crying that their tongues hurt.  All three of them had their tongues coated with Mercuracone. Mommy had to take all three of them to the hospital emergency room. 

Mommy had to keep all the doors closed tight. All medicines had to be put up high.  You know, out of sight, out of mind.  Sometimes even that did not work. Diane saw Mommy eating some chocolate and wanted some.  Mommy told her that she could not have any.  The very next day, Diane decided that she and her brothers needed to have some candy as well.  They ate the whole thing. They never said a word.  In the middle of the night all three of them woke up with stomach pain. Mommy had no idea what was wrong with them. But, off to emergency she went.  Upon examination, the doctor asked Mommy what kind of chocolate did they eat and how much did they eat?  Mommy had to think back. Then she realized they ate her Ex-Lax; all of it, the whole pack!

One morning Mommy woke up with a severe toothache. She made preparations to go to the dentist that afternoon. Mommy went over to Miss Betty’s house next door to see if she could watch us while she went to the dentist.  Miss Betty said Yes. As Mommy went off to the dentist, she left Diane, Donny, Tony, and me, her three month old baby with the sitter. Miss Betty and Mommy were friends and she had watched us in the past so it wasn’t anything unusual. This particular day in early March, Miss Betty was on double duty. She was watching us and cooking at her house. Miss Betty left out of our house to go to her house to check on her pot, so that her food would not burn up or her house would not catch on fire. She did this a couple of times, back and forth. The last time she left to check on her stove, she stayed long enough for something to go terribly wrong at our house. When she finally came back to our house, our house was engulfed in flames. By the time the fire fighters got to us, it was too late. They found Diane, Donny, and Tony in a closet. They died of smoke inhalation. They found me on the couch, severely burned and suffering from smoke inhalations as well. The fire department notified my Grandmother (Hattie, who we called ‘Mother’) first, who called Mommy at the dental office. By the time Mommy arrived at the house, they were bringing me and my siblings out of the house. Mommy stood there crying and screaming. As all this drama was unfolding, Miss Betty had a total nervous break-down right then. Another ambulance had to be dispatched for her.

After all of us arrived at the hospital, the doctors and nurses worked feverishly to save our lives. Shortly after our admission into the hospital, my siblings died. With me being only 3 month old, no one would have ever believed I would have survived. I had first, second, and third degree burns over most of my three month old body. Mommy’s perfect little baby was now all burned up and three dead children. Mommy lived at the hospital. The doctors still had very little hope that I would make it through this ordeal. Because the fire was so bad, the funeral director advised Mommy to hold off on the funeral of my sister and brothers for at least a week to see if I was going to survive.

I can’t imagine the hurt, the anguish, the