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Google | child abuse
That time I did a Google search for an old friend it didn’t end well
You really don’t know a person very well even after living with them
Thursday, 16 March 2023
By: TB Obwoge
I was working with children at an alternative school, I had worked in a few over the years. Special education students with various issues, mainly behavioral health issues.
One day a new guy turned up, he was. a quirky, thin, white male. Nothing like the type of person I’d end up befriending.
Fast-forward, I did it, I got very close to this particular man. He was nerdy, very odd but also made me laugh hard and often.
His name was Sean, he had a very interesting yet troubling life. His childhood was terrible, much like my own. Unstable and abusive childhoods are hard to deal with.
Sean Coghlan was an EMT in New Jersey, he was also in the Army reserves. He would go away for drills one weekend a month, I always watched him pack his things.
When I first met Sean he lived in a house with an older white woman. The woman was legally blind but had some partial sight left. She was the mother to 2 boys who were grown men, they never left her home though.
One of her son’s was like the stereotypical white guy with all the Black friends, listened to rap music. Everyday this guy went out to the store to buy a new white tee shirt, every night they ended up folded in a pile in the basement. He never wore the shirts twice.
The woman owned 13 cats, she was a serious cat lady. Her older son was a rock music lover, very clean cut and pretty cute. They didn’t really care for odd Sean, who was odder than I had ever imagined.
I ended up letting Sean sleep in my living room. My place was pretty full with him, my ex, my daughter and our cat. It was a 2 bedroom but his stay was only temporary.
All the staff at the school we worked in including myself assumed Sean was gay. He had certain mannerisms, along with being a musical buff. He loved broadway plays, musicals and movies about any type of music you can think of.
