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| Abandoned Childhood June, 2008 I lived 4 months in Sandy, Utah, USA. I arrived there by following the legend of pefect powder days on the slopes. I had no idea what to expect - I was young, optimistic and inquisitive. I landed a sweet little job working at a local pizza shop, close to the great Wasatch Mountain range. What still resonates with me from my time there are the stories from folks I meet. Talk of unique, complicated undergarments that require special care. Acres of secret linked tunnels running deep into the Wasatch Mountains, where folks would pursue volenteer work but not discuss it's nature. Talk of fundamentalist groups to the south that practiced polygamy. There was talk of Sarah being Jeffs' second cousin but they were still to be married. Then there were the things that we read about but were never discussed at the pizza shop or on the ski lifts. Stories of young boys who were kicked out of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and left to fend for themselves, with no money and no formal education. Kids who's lives were turned upside-down by their 'fathers'. Now it's been revealed that the sect controlled by Warren Jeffs, has cast into exile up to as many as 1,000 or more young boys. Children's toys were left aside, the boys no longer needing them. Childhoods now abandoned. Bikes, trikes and sandpits abandoned.The toys were claimed by nature. During their annual migration the Mexico thousands of butterflies made them home, thousands of passing butterflies settling on the abandoned toys. Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas . 1,700-acres of love. |
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© 2008 Wendy Murray