LOUISIANA
The Times-Picayune
By Rebecca Catalanello, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on April 02, 2014
She hobbled down the jetway carrying a suitcase, a pillow, a teddy bear for good luck.
At the plane’s entrance she stopped, paralyzed by dread and memories: blood, Pine Sol, broken glass, shame, God – and those barbed wire fences. God, those fences. She hugged the stuffed animal.
What if they say it was my fault? Will they call me a whore? What if I die?
Someone in the line behind her asked, “Is she OK?”
For 25 years, Jennifer Halter, 39, had been living with memories of what happened to her at a religious girls’ home in Arcadia, La. In her mind, the fences towered 15 feet high and stretched for miles, every chain link pinning her in with the man she says sexually abused her, destroyed her faith and led her to try to kill herself.
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