A Stolen Life - A Memoir Part 1
A stolen life : a memoir.
by Jaycee Lee Dugard.
Contents
Authors Note
Introduction
The Taking
Stolen
The Secret Backyard
Alone in a Strange Place
The First Time
First Kitty
The First "Run"
Nancy
Easter: Phillip on an Island
Christmas
Learning I Was Pregnant
Driving to a Trailer
Waiting for Baby
Taking Care of a Baby
Sarge
Second Baby
The Starting of Printing for Less
Birth of Second Baby
Raising the Girls in the Backyard
Nancy Becomes "Mom"
Pretending to Be a Family
Cats
Surviving
Discovery and Reunion
Firsts for Me
Milestones
The Difficult Parts of Life
Finding Old Friends
Therapeutic Healing
Meeting with Nancy
Therapeutic Healing with a Twist
Acknowledgments
Authors Note
This book might be confusing to some. But keep in mind throughout my book that this was a very confusing world I lived in. I think to truly begin to understand what it was like, you would have had to be there, and since I wish that on no one, this book is my attempt to convey the overwhelming confusion I felt during those years and to begin to unravel the damage that was done to me and my family.
You might be suddenly reading about a character that was never introduced, but thats how it was for me. It didnt feel like a sequence of events. Even after I was freed, moments are fragmented and jumbled. With some help, I have come to realize that my perspective is unique to abduction. I dont want to lose that voice, and therefore I have written this book how it came to me naturally. Im not the average storyteller ... Im me ... and my experience is very uncommon. Yes, I jump around with tangents, but thats sometimes the way my mind works. If you want a less confusing story, come back to me in ten years from now when I sort it all out!
Jacyee Lee Dugard, age eleven
Introduction
Lets get one thing straight! My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I was kidnapped by a stranger at age eleven. For eighteen years I was kept in a backyard and not allowed to say my own name. What follows will be my personal story of how one fateful day in June of 1991 changed my life forever.
I decided to write this book for two reasons. One reason is that Phillip Garrido believes no one should find out what he did to an eleven-year-old girl ... me. He also believes he is not responsible for his actions. I believe differently. I believe that everyone should know exactly what he and his wife Nancy were doing all these years in their backyard. I believe I shouldnt be ashamed for what happened to me, and I want Phillip Garrido to know that I no longer have to keep his secret. And that he is most certainly responsible for stealing my life and the life I should have had with my family.