Diane Flaherty Research Paper

My name is Shannon Diane Flaherty…now Holland. I was born some twenty odd years ago on November 24, along with my twin brother Mike, in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. He’s 2 ½ minutes older than me, and always makes it a point to tell me. I lived in a two family house with my family, and my neighbors were my aunt, uncle, and cousins, so I always had someone to hang out with Anyways, I have a mom, dad, four older brothers, named Danny, Rian, Darragh, and obviously, Mike. I also have one younger sister, Katie.
Up until maybe second grade, everything was great. But in the middle of second grade my mom got sick. At first, when we would come home, my brothers and I just thought my mom was playing pretend, you know, to kind of get our creative juices flowing or whatever. When we would come home, she would always act like she was someone else. Like one time she thought she was Marilyn Monroe, the next, she thought she was one of Charlie’s Angels. We were young, we didn’t know anything was wrong. But there was. About half a year later, a few months later, my mom was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. So basically what
I never knew how much it was, but it caused my dad to sell a few things, make my brothers and I get a small job, just to earn a few bucks. We had to move a few months later, so it was goodbye Reedville, Hello Norwood. Norwood was a nice little town, a bit cleaner than Hyde Park... much smaller too. It was one of those towns where if something big happens, everyone and their mothers know about it. In Norwood, I met my first best friends, three girls named Christy, Michele, and Rachel. We did everything your average eight and nine year olds would do back then; after school clubs, playing together at recess, telling secrets to each other, and more. They always invited me over their house for play dates and sleepovers, and I always felt bad because they couldn’t stay at mine—for obvious