As a child, silence became a member of the Goy family, as if we adopted it. Numerous times I recall when the house would be dead man silent but also when you would hear the house filled with joy and laughter from two little girls as they played dress-up. Those are the ties I like to remember. . I have always been told, “As a long as the good outweighs the bad then everything will be okay,” in the Conley household that wasn’t the case. Whenever, it was silent and you watched Mommy and Daddy just walk past each other as if they were the only ones walking in the hallway or not communicate with one another; my sisters and I just knew everything was building up to that one argument that would blow the roof off the house.

The totem pole had filled up and my Mommy and Daddy both finally decided to cease the marriage. As a child it was hard to cope with the divorce considering that all of my sisters and my friends had both parents living with them, and now we would be the oddballs. Now that I am older and a little wiser I admit that the divorce of my parents had a major effect on me, as well as, my outlook on different situations. We were in and out of the court house for years; which didn’t chance much Mommy and Daddy would still argue about who gets to keep the kids. Once the divorce was finally settled my sister and I had a monthly visitation with my parents; which consisted of us staying with one parent one month, the other parent the next month and it switched back and forth every month. The whole packing, unpacking, passing off of bags, missing one parent while with the other was so much for me to handle that I begin to become an angry frustrated child who just wanted her parents to get back together so we could be a family again.

We became an ex family so quick. As I aged my Daddy started to give up his month visits with me and my sister to be