Abstract:
This thesis is the beginning foundation of a larger work that focuses on my life as a young child, navigating being abandoned by my mother, Janet Carroll Smith, at an early age, and handing the responsibilities the caring for my brothers and working through my own trauma as a teenager. This is the first section of a three-section project that centers on the activity and dysfunctional life that was thrown on three young children. This is a story of heartbreak, fortitude, and love that explores the dynamics between mother and father, father and daughter, and mother and daughter. The beginning section of this thesis is part a larger work that will further include my mother’s best left through her late 40’s and 50’s, to being diagnosed with dementia, where my family and I would take on the responsibility and care of her until her passing in 2015.
