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| Text=I was born in SD to very loving parents. When I was three years old my mother was concerned about the fact that I was masturbating, since she had read some place that it was the ultimate sin. She took me to doctor at a clinic in {{USSC|ND}}, who took me to a hospital in {{USSC|MN}} and removed my [[clitoris]]. My mother was at the end of the table. I remember the [[pain]]. I also remember knowing that I couldn't trust her anymore. I often have wondered why I always understood what had happened to me. As a health educator I helped develop a program for preparing children for surgery and found out from a childlife child-life specialist that at age three the development stage is fear that some part of your body will be cut off because you were naughty and that did happen to me. Funny thing is about this, just like other sexual abuse when one has been abused, one tends to masturbate more. It became my way of dealing with a lot of issues. So when I was caught, I would always be told that this would make me crazy if I continued on. So I was very alone.

I spent a lot of time with my brother. I remember when we were about 14 and 15 years old crawling up on top of the corn crib in the sunshine, chewing on cornstalks and talking about what was expected us in life. He didn't want to accept his role as a farmers farmer's son and I didn't want to become a teacher or nurse. Funny thing I am in the health field teaching. So together we were going to face the world in our own way. He went on to college to become a civil engineer and I began my freshman year in chemistry and then he drowned. I really fell apart. I felt like I lost the only person who really understood who I was. Although I had never spoken to him about the [[mutilation]]; I had only discussed this with my mother who had said that she thought it was a mistake. Never mentioned it to my sisters.