Welcome back to Unfiltered Stories! Today, our guest Melissa Cline bravely shares the heart-wrenching story of her childhood. Melissa's parents kept her in a 5x8 cage throughout her childhood and she endured challenges such as being tied up in bed when they left home.
In the face of these unimaginable challenges, Melissa's resilience shined through. Despite the hardships, she held onto hope and persevered through the darkest moments and now tells her story to inspire others.
#childhood #parenting #lifestory #survivalstory #trauma
Thank you for watching Unfiltered Stories! We offer a platform for our guests to speak openly about their life stories and journeys, shedding light on the challenges they faced and the resilience they've shown.
Our mission is to raise awareness about survivors by delving into their stories, exploring the impact of their experiences, and how they've managed to heal and rebuild their lives.
By sharing these stories, we aim to break the silence surrounding those challenging memories and create a compassionate environment.
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In the face of these unimaginable challenges, Melissa's resilience shined through. Despite the hardships, she held onto hope and persevered through the darkest moments and now tells her story to inspire others.
#childhood #parenting #lifestory #survivalstory #trauma
Thank you for watching Unfiltered Stories! We offer a platform for our guests to speak openly about their life stories and journeys, shedding light on the challenges they faced and the resilience they've shown.
Our mission is to raise awareness about survivors by delving into their stories, exploring the impact of their experiences, and how they've managed to heal and rebuild their lives.
By sharing these stories, we aim to break the silence surrounding those challenging memories and create a compassionate environment.
🌅 FOLLOW US 🌅
Facebook âž® https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredFB
Tiktok âž® https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredTT
Snapchat âž® https://tinyurl.com/UnfilteredSN
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NewsTranscript
00:00My name is Melissa. I'd like to share a story about a person that has endured abuse all the
00:07way from the moments probably that I was in my mother's womb into adulthood, ranging from
00:15isolated techniques, physical abuse, some sexual abuse, being trafficked, sexually assaulted,
00:23left for dead, kidnapped, taking my first flight on Delta Airlines in handcuffs. I've been a nurse now
00:31for 22 years, and I had told my mother when I was four years old that one day I was
00:39going to be a
00:39nurse, and she laughed at me, but I made it regardless of circumstances, and from my pain
00:48and my experiences, I do everything in my power. If it's sharing my story, if it's leading someone
00:57that I see is headed in the direction or is going through what I went through, that I step in
01:05and be
01:06their advocate. Well, it all started when I was a toddler up until about the age of four. I was
01:12kept
01:13in a room that was made. It was just like a five by eight room with wooden floors, wooden walls.
01:20I was
01:20made to pretty much stay in that room the entirety of the day. I wouldn't be allowed out. I spent
01:27a lot
01:27of time in that room, and I was always very quiet, very shy. I didn't know how to communicate because
01:34I
01:34was kept isolated. There was this one evening my parents were asleep. I don't know what made me do it,
01:42but I did it. Somehow climbed over. They had like this paneling, and they had two by fours that were
01:49built onto this room to where I couldn't get out. In the middle of the night, I climbed over. I
01:55was able
01:56to crawl out or climb out, came out on the other side. I was not allowed to have sweets. Anytime
02:03anyone
02:03gave sweets for me, my parents would take it and hold it, and they later would eat it. They would
02:09eat it in
02:10front of me, and they thought it was funny, but I never knew what anything sweet tasted like. There
02:14was a pack of lemon cookies. I'll never forget the taste of the lemon. I went and saw them. I
02:22didn't
02:22really know what they were, but when I bit into it, and it just tasted so good, and it was
02:28lemony,
02:28and it was sweet. I don't know. I just climbed, tried to climb back in because I didn't want them
02:33to
02:33know that I had gotten out, but the paneling, however it was, fell. When they woke up that morning,
02:39they saw the paneling was done. That meant that I got out. When my father would leave to go to
02:45work,
02:45my mother, she would tie me up to the bed so that she would leave. I don't think my father
02:51knew that
02:51she would leave the house. I would stay tied up in the bed. Anytime I'd wet the bed, they would
02:56hold me
02:56down in the tub and pour ice cold water. My dad would have my mother hold me down while he
03:04poured
03:04cold water over me as a form of punishment for urinating on myself. My dad's sisters, his mother,
03:13and my mother's grandparents, none of them ever knew, and I was always very quiet, and I would mimic
03:19animals. I would act like a dog, like a puppy dog. I would whine like a dog because I knew
03:26that
03:26if I whined, somebody would pat me on the head. Somebody would give me love and attention,
03:33something that I never got from my parents, and that never occurred. The relatives, you know,
03:39they thought, well, that's kind of weird, you know, but it never dawned on them why I was doing this,
03:44because I was, like, exposed to a world that I'd never known. I never knew that donuts existed,
03:53and, uh, but they had a Christmas, um, gather thing. Everyone was asleep, and my grandfather
03:59had brought these, uh, a box of Dunkin' Donuts, and I took a bite out of every single donut,
04:05because I wanted to taste each one, because it just tasted so good, or just spraying perfume,
04:12or whatever it was, just playing with things, touching, because no one knew what was really going
04:19on in my parents' home. Once I turned nine years old, my parents got divorced. My mother, she had
04:25left my father for a black man, and so back then, that's in the 70s, so that's real rough. Anyway,
04:32needless to say, my father got custody of me. During the 70s, men never got custody of their children.
04:38I, I asked my father, um, back in 2010, I, I just wanted to hear, I'm sorry. All I ever
04:46wanted was,
04:46I was sorry. My mother was murdered when I was 18, so I never got that sorry from her,
04:52but my father told me, when I asked him about that, and he told me, he said,
04:58well, we just kept you in the cage for protection. You keep an animal in the cage. You don't keep
05:04your
05:04kid in a cage, but he couldn't apologize. He, he couldn't say he was sorry. I was definitely afraid.
05:12I had a lot of fear, you know, because anytime, if, um, if I were to get hurt, um, just
05:20something like,
05:21uh, example, my father had to slam on the brakes, and I was riding in the front seat, sitting in
05:28my
05:28mother's lap, and my head hit the windshield and cracked the windshield. So instead of them being
05:34concerned that I might have had a hematoma or some type of head injury, he pinched me and
05:42just talked nasty the whole entire way, hum, look what you did. You broke the window. You broke the
05:48window. And I held my tears in. I, I refused to cry because I knew if I cried, I was
05:54going to be beat.
05:56And so that's something my dad really hated about me is the fact that no matter how long it took,
06:04I would never cry. I would just hold my breath because I refused to let him see tears come out.
06:10The only person that I ever truly was super duper angry with probably was my mother,
06:17because I felt like she left me behind. But I understand why, you know, she herself endured abuse
06:25from him as well. I went to the guidance counselor in the school system where I was from. Back then,
06:32guidance counselors were on the parents' side. Before I could even make it home on the school bus,
06:38the guidance counselor had already called and told my dad what had happened. And I didn't hear the
06:43conversation. So I don't know what happened, but I ended up coming to visit his sister in Georgia.
06:49She could hear how he talked to me on the phone and she knew that that wasn't the appropriate
06:55environment for me. She had me stay with her for a couple of weeks for an Easter vacation. I came
07:01down
07:01and started sharing things because I'd never, none of my family knew this. You know, she asked me,
07:08she said, would you like to live with me? Would you like to come and move down here? And I
07:12was like,
07:13yes, I would. I loved her. She was like the closest thing I ever had to a mother. In 1983,
07:18my father agreed to giving guardianship to my aunt and uncle. The day I left home to come down here
07:25is
07:26the first day he had ever told me he loved me. And he cried and he hugged me and said
07:32he loved me,
07:32which I thought was the weirdest thing. And so things were going great. Everything was wonderful.
07:37My father and stepmother, they had separated. Him and I were in the swimming pool together and I'll
07:43never forget. I was swimming and he just like put his arms around me in the pool. And when he
07:51did,
07:51it was like this lightning bolt of fear just came over me. And all of a sudden there was this
07:57man that
07:58was standing at our pool. Now we lived out in the rural, out in the country where farms and lots
08:04of
08:04fields. And this man came to the pool and he asked, excuse me, can you tell me how to get
08:12to such and such?
08:14This such and such place didn't exist. And at that instant broke that. He let go of me. He stood
08:21up to
08:22walk over to answer his question. And he told him, no, I don't. I've never heard of that place. And
08:29the man vanished. Gone. All I know is I will always say it was a guardian angel. I was 13.
08:36I was an
08:37athlete in school and he pushed himself on me trying to kiss me when his wife wasn't in the home.
08:42But
08:43fortunately, I did have some strength and I fought my way out of that. When I was a senior in
08:48high school,
08:49it was like a couple of weeks before graduation. I had found out I was pregnant. I had gotten
08:55pregnant in May. I was in a relationship with a person of color and it was two weeks before
09:03graduation. And my aunt was making my graduation dress and she had done, you know, a second thing
09:10of measurements. But she also noticed I was sleeping. I was agitated, you know, or just being isolated.
09:18And she noticed some change she knew. And I'll never forget that morning when I was walking out
09:23to leave to go to school. She said, Melissa, are you pregnant? I was like, no ma'am.
09:31No way would I tell her I was pregnant. I saved the pregnancy test and doctor's appointment. She
09:38found the photograph. And the next thing you know, I was caught out of school early.
09:44So, but it wasn't just her in the car. It was her and my uncle. And before we could leave
09:49the school
09:49parking lot, she said, are you pregnant? I asked you, is that ready or fully? Yes, I'm, I'm pregnant.
09:56So anyway, that evening or that afternoon, no one in the community knew anything about what I was doing
10:04in my personal life. They went around and they told all their neighbors that I had become
10:09pregnant by a black man. I was going to have a black child. I made me call all of my
10:14relatives,
10:14my grandparents, my dad. Through that whole afternoon of listening to all these bombarding
10:21comments. And all I know is hearing them, you know, how disgraced they were with me. And how could I
10:29do that? Because my mother did that to my dad. How could I do that? I'm an embarrassment. I'm ashamed.
10:36I packed a little bag and I wrote a little letter and I told them, sorry for hurting you. I
10:41thank you
10:42for everything you did. And made my way to my daughter's father's home. I took a cab,
10:49tried to knock, nobody answered, turned the knob, it opened. And his father is sitting,
10:55standing at the end of the hallway with a shotgun in his underwear. And he was like, who the hell
11:00are you?
11:00And what are you here for? Or something to that effect. And I said, well, I'm here for
11:06so-and-so. And he was like, I should have known. He's over there. Needless to say, he was not
11:12very
11:12helpful. His family did the same thing. I answered in an ad in the paper for a live-in babysitter.
11:20She
11:20has two children, nice lady. And of course, I had nowhere to go. So I stayed there for a little
11:26bit.
11:26And it was great. She gave me a little stipend along with I could eat and had shelter. And I
11:31was
11:32pregnant. She knew my situation. And she was, she was a white woman. And she was getting stories or,
11:39you know, rumors that I had a visitor that wasn't our color. And so she let me know that, you
11:48know,
11:48I'm sorry, but you have 24 hours. You're going to need to leave. I get on the phone and the
11:54next
11:54door neighbor had this friend. First time I saw him, I was like, God, he's so cute. Him and I
11:59would
12:00talk and I let him know what was going on. And he started asking me questions. He said, well, do
12:04you
12:04have anywhere else you can go? Can you do this? Can you do that? Blah, blah, blah, blah. I had
12:09already
12:10inquired through DFACS if there was any programs, if there was somebody that could help me. DFACS was
12:16like, no, there's nothing we can do until after you have your baby. I had told him everything, you know,
12:22and came. He said, well, you just stay there, get your whatever belongings you have. See if she's
12:28got any money. Do I need some gas money? And he was coming. I thought he was coming to save
12:32me. She
12:33had this $20 bill. And anyway, he came, he went and put gas in the car with that $20 bill.
12:39He started
12:40riding around in Atlanta and there was this one street that a long time ago is called Auburn Avenue.
12:46It's still there. But back then it was a very well known area where prostitutes were. But I didn't
12:55know that because I didn't live anywhere near Atlanta. He took me around. I saw all these girls
13:00just walking around in negligees and heels and I was like, is this weird? Why are they dressed like
13:07this? You know, and he just riding around and he's not really saying a whole lot. So he took me
13:13to Metropolitan. He explained, is this what you'll do? He started talking to me and telling me, you
13:18know, all you're going to do is you're going to walk down the sidewalk and someone's going to
13:22going to come up to you and they're going to ask you questions. They're going to offer you money to
13:27do things. He said, don't worry, I'm going to follow you. I'll take care of you. You're going to be
13:33all right. I get out and I start walking. Yep. Just like he said, they pulled up and they'd ask
13:38if you
13:38want to date. To me, dating was you went to the movie theater. They took you somewhere or whatever,
13:44blah, blah, blah. Oh, this is easy, you know? And that's in my mind. That's where I'm thinking.
13:50And so I get in the car. He had told me where to have the man park the car. It
13:56was this parking
13:57lot, empty parking lot. And he parked his car like three parking spaces over. Well, this man didn't like
14:04where we were. And he said he wanted to go somewhere else. They took me to this other
14:11little driveway. And at that point, that was the first time I'd ever been raped. He held something
14:18to my neck that felt like a knife and told me what he was going to do. And he had
14:22the nerve to drop me
14:23back off to the parking lot once he was done. So I got in the car with Romeo and, you
14:29know,
14:29Romeo wants to know where money is. And it was like, I don't have any money. This is what happened.
14:34He wanted me to tell him what happened. What did he do? He said, don't worry about it. I'm going
14:39to
14:39take you back out there and you'll get it next time. It got a little easier, but it never felt
14:44any better. So I chose the option of not fighting. It's how I survived as long as I did, because
14:51I
14:51never fought back. Maybe a couple of nights later, same, it was a different scenario, but at the hotel
14:58and the man just kicked the door in and did the same thing, raped. It was just constant,
15:04habitual rape over and over. Not that it gets easier. It's just, it becomes a part of life
15:09because now you're in survival mode. Now it's about how do I keep myself alive and how do I escape?
15:16Because every bit of money that I make, because he follows me everywhere, he gets all of my money.
15:21He introduced me to drugs. One thing I never did is I never allow, I never did whatever they were,
15:29shoot up drugs or any of those things, because I remember seeing movies, you know, of how people
15:36were and how it would destroy people. I never visually saw it in real life until being in my situation.
15:44I gave birth to her when I was in jail. I was locked up for prostitution. I was in labor
15:52with
15:52her for three days and they would transport me back and forth to the hospital from the jail,
15:58ride around with my hands handcuffed and in labor. And they handcuffed me to your bed and I gave birth
16:07to
16:07her in handcuffs. She needed to stay with her grandmother because I was in jail. So that was
16:14the first time I had seen her father as he came up to sign the birth certificate and then he
16:19took her
16:19home with them. That's why he introduced me to, and that's one of their ways of getting you stuck and
16:29makes people very paranoid and scared. On top of the fear you already have, it all blows it all out
16:36of
16:36abortion. So you're extremely scared at that point. You don't know what to do. And then you become
16:42addicted. You're not allowed to prostitute without a pimp. And this one was a very famous one. His name
16:49was Blood. That was his street name. I ended up getting in his car. I came up with this thing
16:56of trying to
16:57figure out how to keep myself from being one of those victims of his. So I, I don't know. I
17:06just was,
17:07I came up with this story that one, my granddad, I had, he had this trust fund set up for
17:15me. But
17:15once I turned like the age of 25, that time I wasn't 25, that I would get a hold of
17:22this trust fund.
17:22He wanted to take and more or less kidnap. It is kidnapping. It was me and another girl,
17:31him and another pimp. The other pimp's name was Dallas. There were two well-known pimps in Atlanta,
17:38Georgia. So they get in, get us in the car. We're told we're going to get in the car. Next
17:44thing you
17:45know, we don't know anything. We haven't taken any belongings, nothing. We're just told to get in the car.
17:50And we're flying down, you know, riding and they're riding and riding. And she knows the girl
17:57because she's been with him. And she was like, I want out. And she just started fussing and going
18:03and saying, I was like, just be quiet. Please just be quiet. Just be quiet. Cause I, I just didn't
18:09want
18:09the ride in the trunk. Cause those are the things I heard about, about this person. And it's like,
18:15just, I just want to stay alive. Just shut up. He had Dallas pull over on the side of the
18:20highway
18:21and he wrapped cause he, she wouldn't stop talking. And he took the telephone cord where he had this.
18:28I have no idea. Like I said, he was a weirdo and he did weird, vicious things that people say
18:34he had
18:34things. And he took the telephone cord and just wrapped it around her neck and just kept pulling.
18:41Just shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. And, um, she stopped breathing on the side of the road
18:47there.
18:48We get up, uh, to DC. DC wasn't what they wanted. And I ended up in, uh, New Jersey. I
18:55was in the middle
18:56and all these pimps around it. And so this, this blood fellow was being nice because I was, like I
19:04said, I had already given him that little epiphany, what I could do for him in my life. And he
19:11had,
19:12whoa, we can get married and we can this. You know, he gave all this fruity conversation,
19:18which that was weird because that's not his reputation. So anyway, um,
19:26I was not able to get away. Um, because he followed me just like any other would do. So
19:34there's no escape. You have no way of escape. And one thing, he didn't have me using drugs.
19:39He made sure that I was always looking, quote unquote, beautiful. This one day we came in
19:48and, um, about to go to sleep. Yeah. I want to say, yeah, just getting ready to go to bed.
19:55And all of a
19:56sudden there was a knock on the door. There was like knock on the door. That, that is not a
20:02normal knock.
20:04So he hid in the bathroom. Don't know why he hid in the bathroom, but he hid in the bathroom.
20:10So I went and I looked through the peephole and I saw guns on both sides of the peephole.
20:18And they were like, Melissa, open the door. Oh, I'm saved. Oh my God. Somebody knows my name. Oh my
20:29God. And I opened the door because I knew I'd be okay now because someone, these bounty hunters had
20:36come up there because I was on a property bond and, um, they were staying in a few hotel rooms
20:43down.
20:44And because he had transformed me so much, I looked nothing like I did that they didn't even know it
20:52was me. They were, they were on their way of leaving and going back to Atlanta because they couldn't find
20:58me. And he said my name in the parking lot or on the balcony as we were walking past them.
21:05They heard
21:06my name and they were like, bingo. And then we got her and they were real nice. They were real
21:11nice.
21:12And, um, they took me whatever out to breakfast, you know, of course, I'm riding in the back of the
21:18car in handcuffs, blah, blah, blah. And I don't know where that airport up there in New York is,
21:24I don't know, LaGuardia, whatever that is, somewhere up there in New York, the big air. But anyway,
21:29here I am walking through the airport, this young girl, volume one, what, however old I was,
21:34I can't remember if I was 21, 22, whatever it is. But I was in handcuffs and, you know,
21:40people were looking real weird. Like, wait, this is a young, why is this young girl in handcuffs?
21:46What did she do? You know, walking through New York airport, you know, they're just like,
21:53whoo, that's some serious stuff there. And I'm like, yeah, prostitute. Wow.
21:59I'm going through all this for a prostitute. And so that was my first experience with my first
22:05plane flight. I rode Delta in handcuffs back to Atlanta. When I was 36, about 36 years old was
22:13when I first had that experience where a man actually treated me as a human being, as a woman.
22:21And from that point on, it was life altering for me. Women that are in abusive situations,
22:27they're going to stay with the abuser. They'll leave seven times and come back. It's a known fact.
22:35It's going to take them many times before they finally make it up in their mind. That's it. I'm done.
22:41So anyway, I got my act together. I got myself clean, got myself in school. Therapist, the one
22:48there was my therapist with helping me with me wanting to stop using drugs. She took me to the
22:56school, paid for my application fee because she believed in me. I became a nurse. I've been a
23:02nurse of the year with Kaiser Permanente. I've been in the Atlanta Journal nominated out of 400 nurses in
23:09the state of Georgia as a nurse of the year. A lot of things I've done because it was what
23:15I was
23:15supposed to be when I told my mother at the age of four one day I would be a nurse.
23:20And I had this
23:22one woman who saw me one day holding my child, rocking him in the chair. She said, you know,
23:27you're supposed to be a nurse. I totally forgot about it because of my life. What I had went through,
23:35I was like, there's no way I could be a nurse. It's impossible. You know, how is that going to
23:39be?
23:40And she said, oh, yes, ma'am, you're going to be a nurse. And I see you healing your patients.
23:44You're going to sing over and you're going to heal them with your voice. Like, you know, I accept that.
23:51I'm going to accept that. If you can see that in me. And I know that's my dream. I can
23:57do it.
23:57All I've done since then, I became an ambassador in Atlanta with the Up Future, Not a Past project.
24:05And it's for females that are prostituted in Atlanta. Later, when I started sharing my story
24:12a few years ago, I worked at Grady in Atlanta and my nurse compadres there that are friends of mine.
24:22And never in a million years did they know my history. And when I shared it, it was just like
24:30an
24:30outpouring of like, holy who would have ever thought things can change and life can transform.
24:39And I'm a living testament. And I like to refer to myself as a miracle. That's all I'm going to
24:47say about that.
24:52As I said, I'm going to mention this. Thank you, люб Tag保.
24:53I'll never count you for that again.
24:54Thank you, point.
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