Christine

This is where your going to find updates and information about what may become my most important project this year.

Christine: Portrait of a Teenage Walkaway

Christine was someone who came into my life in late 1981 and has left such a deep and insightful impact that her story has been trying to escape my head and make its way on paper for almost 30 years.

Unlike many of my past projects Christine is not meant to be a “how to”, instead it started as a semi autobiographical look at how one persons unusual situation can effect your whole life. It has now turned into a factual book that I hope will find its way into the hands of teens, their parents, School Administrators and even some counselors.

I will be doing my best to personally promote the stories and information in this book, and hope that it may move you enough to help spread the word.

Watch this space for news and live updates as well as multimedia posts, that will help Christine’s story unfold into the hearts of everyone she comes in contact with.

If you’ve been reading here for a while you know that I’m not normally one who ‘dribbles’ out information. But this subject is SO important that I think it deserves more.

That being said I’d like to wet your appetite for whats coming with this small audio clip from my most recent presentation.

I realized after editing that it IS slightly out of context and I apologize for that, this should be about 30 seconds:

TROUBLE

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 1:

She showed up at her dad’s apartment, only to find him in the middle of a date, something she was not quite prepared for, so she went to a friends house. Unfortunately her friends mom started to get concerned and called Christine’s mom, who told her that Christine was trouble and she should get her out of her house as quickly as possible. Although she offered Christine some money, she explained that she would have to leave or the police would become involved. So Christine left. When she noticed my mouth hanging open Christine said, “Well hey, mom and Guido both taught at the High School so parents thought they were made of gold anyway.” Christine explained how she spent the next several months moving from friend to friend, until word got out about her folks, and then staying in school and trying to feed herself got to be too much in conflict, so she stopped going.

That’s when her mom REALLY got involved, you’re a teacher and your own daughter wont come to school? Apparently mom couldn’t explain so she told Christine that she would ‘give her an allowance’ so long as she was in school everyday. No not a place to sleep or clean clothes to wear, but just enough money so she wouldn’t starve, all to protect her moms reputation. Christine took the money and then went unto hiding. Apparently she had met an older guy in his twenties who was too strung out to want anything more than someone to make sure he didn’t choke to death on those nights when he drank too much. She was with ‘Jim’ for almost 6 months and then one night he didn’t come home.