Child Sex Abuse - 11 sister, survivors' story

 

11 Sisters Who Were Separated as Kids Survive Child Abuse, Reunite After 43 Years

Courtesy of Barbara Lane

Louise Chambers

7/6/2023|Updated: 12/29/2023

Eleven sisters who were separated as kids when their biological family fell apart spent 43 years searching for each other. It wasn’t until they reunited that they learned the extent of the horrors they'd each suffered, but, in sharing their pain, they formed a sibling bond stronger than ever.

Reverend Barbara Lane, the ninth of 11 sisters, is a child abuse survivor and ministerial counselor living in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, James.

“One way or another, our mother abandoned us,” Barbara told The Epoch Times. “As the story goes, she had kicked our father out for various reasons, and then she ran away with a boyfriend. It was December in St. Louis, and it was a particularly cold December. ... She turned off the heat and sold all the furniture, and just left us.

“Depending on which sister’s story you’re listening to, we must have been there about three days before the neighbors figured out what was going on,” she said.

‘We Weren’t Safe’

(L-R): Robert Lane (39), Kay (2), Lucy Lane (33), Barbara (3 months), Mickey (6), Bobby (9), Vicky (6), Annie (10), Ellen (15), Ruth (16), and Laverne in Dillon Drive, St. Louis in 1951. Courtesy of Barbara Lane

The year was 1954. Two of Barbara’s older sisters were already married and had left home. The youngest sister was yet to be born. One of the sisters, Laverne, was around 15 when their mother, Lucy, kicked out their father, Robert, and left. Laverne ran away.

“She ran away before the social workers came so they didn’t scoop her up,” Barbara said. “There’s a story that she did find where our father lived. ... She asked if she could stay with him. ... she said, ‘I’m really hungry.’ He said, ‘Take a vitamin, it’s every bit as nutritious as a meal.’ She spent the night there, left in the morning, and just made her way in the world as best she could.”

Barbara, who was 3 years old at the time, was removed from the apartment alongside seven sisters and placed in a Catholic orphanage. For Barbara, whose older sisters were her source of comfort, this was a “beautiful experience.” However, her sisters, on the other hand, missed their mother.

But unfortunately, no matter where the siblings went, they were faced with some form of abuse and were never truly “safe.” But Barbara was constantly protected by her older sisters through it all.

“My older sisters protected me from all of that,” Barbara said.

But Barbara was later separated from her sisters and placed in foster care with her sister Kay, who was 18 months older than her. There she faced trauma.

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