User:Dcfsadh/sandbox

My name is Ashleigh Magee. I am a senior at Fontainebleau High School in Mandeville Louisiana. I live with my adopted parents, sister, and 2 dogs. I enjoy babysitting, going to concerts, and hanging out with my friends. I work at a daycare after school where I take care of 5 beautiful and silly 1 year olds. I grew up in Mandeville starting with my parents and my two younger siblings, Aleisha and Zack. My story begins when I was just a little girl. My father was very abusive. He would verbally, mentally, and physically abuse my mother (28), sister(7), little brother (5) and I (8). In 2007, my mother finally had enough of putting herself and us through the abuse. She decided to leave him and for the time being we lived with my aunt. My father has many psychological issues. He could not handle the change, which led him to do something that would change my family’s life forever. On April 18, never again would I be the same girl. My mom, brother, sister, and I were on our way home to change my brother and get him ready for his baseball game. We pulled into the neighborhood and all of a sudden my father’s car appeared behind ours. Out of the rearview mirror my mother saw that he had a gun and suddenly he started to shoot. She started to panic and crashed into a tree. She got out of the car and so did my father and they began fighting over the gun. My sister and I were still in the car. I was searching in the driver’s seat for my mother’s phone to call 911 but I could not find it. I saw my little brother get out of the car and run, but I didn’t see where to. All of a sudden I heard a loud noise and then another, and then another. I quickly turned to look in the back seat and told my little sister, “pretend like your dead”. Before I knew it, I was looking back at my father pointing the 12 gauge shot gun at me. I was looking him in eyes, searching for some sort of humanity left in him, but I found nothing. He then pulled the trigger and I lost consciousness. When I came to my arm started to feel really heavy and when I touched it there was bright red sticky stuff everywhere. My sister appeared over me and she was perfectly untouched. I heard her whisper to me, “sis stay alive”. I told her to get help and she refused to leave me. All of a sudden, the sweetest man that anyone could ever imagine appeared. He came up to me, picked me up and carried me in his arms to his garage nearby. On the way all I could see was my mother lying there in the grass so motionless and lifeless. I wanted to kick and scream to get down. I wanted nothing more than to go by her and wake her up but I was too weak and they refused to let me see her. I also saw my little baby brother. He was lying down in the middle of the street, not moving. I heard sirens a few moments later and lost consciousness again. My mother and brother both died that day and my father is now on death row. All I had left was my sister. I currently live with my sister, Aliesha, and my adopted parents. I continue to have problems with my arm when it comes to motion and muscle spasms due to permanent damage. I live with PTSD and I occasionally struggle with flashbacks. Despite all of that, I have remained motivated through these years because I know how proud my mother and brother are of me. I refuse to let what happened to me be an excuse for anything. I did not let it define who I am or what I am going to be. I like to tell my story to kids who are going through a tough time to help motivate them and show them that life can be really tough at times but you have to make the best of it. I will never let the past be an excuse for what I can accomplish today. It will only make me a better and stronger person.