raroberts

This MFTV movie is based on a true story of Beth (Cat) and her brother John (Eric), whose mother died when Beth was one year old. They were adopted by a religious couple when Beth was 19 months old and John was an infant. The story of the abuse and neglect suffered at the hands of her birth father after the mother died and before they were adopted is mostly true, but the story was produced for television so keep that in mind.

For those interested, read the true story of Beth's experience in the book entitled "Dandelion on My Pillow, Butcher Knife Beneath It" by Nancy Thomas. Beth herself is quoted in the book and helps to tell her own true story. It is not solely a book about Beth, but contains other even more fascinating stories of real children who lived on Nancy's therapeutic ranch in Colorado.

These kids killed and/or tortured animals, murdered someone in their own family, and one was even a serial rapist.

Having read the book, I found and just re-viewed for the first time since it was aired on HBO a video of the special, "Child of Rage: A Story of Abuse" done by Ken Magid. The film, although brilliant, was misleading, according to Nancy and Beth. By the time filming took place, Beth had lived with Nancy for some time and had substantially healed from "baby Beth's" ordeal and was well on her way to recovery. Her interview was a testament to the progress she had already made, and she was simply reciting factually the past events when Dr. Magid explored the incidents with her. Her behavior by then had permanently improved and she was neither violent in any way nor displayed any kind of behavioral problem.

Nancy and her husband were under the impression that they would keep Beth as their own, but the religious adoptive parents had other plans for Beth. Under the guise of a visit to their home on the east coast, the adoptive couple instead put Beth with an Aunt for a while and then turned Beth over to a program created especially for Beth and others like her when the facility was completed. Both Nancy's family and Beth were devastated. Later, the adoptive parents legally abandoned her altogether; however, the setback didn't revert Beth to violence and, in fact, the facility said they had never witnessed any kind of malevolent behavior out of Beth since she was put there.

By the time Nancy and her husband found out where Beth was, they immediately discovered that Beth had been abandoned and rapidly moved to adopt her.

At the writing of Nancy's book, Beth was a college student and said that Beth is a beautiful, happy and completely recovered woman. Thankfully we have people like Nancy out there.

This is a wonderful film for both those who have and have not experienced such trauma. I saw this film in the 80's. I had a car accident in 1997. My face popped through the windshield, leaving me temporarily blind and with deformed facial features that required a half dozen surgeries over 3 years. Today, you'd never know it ever happened to me, my surgeon was amazing, but when Leola unwrapped her bandages for the first time and saw her face it sent chills down my spine. I cried when I saw my face too... I believed my whole life was over. The portrayal of her emotional state immediately after the accident, her absolute need to get "back to normal" and back to work just 5 weeks after the accident, and especially the patience required to let the skin heal through the initial trauma and all of the follow-up surgeries was absolutely accurate. There is something for all of us to learn from Leola's story and I am glad they put her story on the screen. MFTV, yes, but one of the best of these types of films, and certainly one of the most inspirational and accurate survival stories I have ever seen.