This is an essay Katie wrote in my letter recently. Katie is my incarcerated pen pal in western PA. She has still not moved back into her own cell since her covid illness. Though the illness has slowed down at her facility, Secretary of Corrections, John Wetzel wants ‘all prisons operating the same way’. So, she is still in a cell with other survivors of covid! She is still not quite herself yet, but she is feeling somewhat better emotionally, spiritually and physically. Continue praying for her to go back to her own unit, friends and cell mate. There is so little in that situation to get you up in the morning, a small thing like your own familiar room and cell mate can make all the difference.
by Katie Woolsey
This other earthly dimension. Population:900 something
It’s really hard to enjoy the view here.
We are all each other has; it’s not always pretty.
We love each other and we hate each other,
We love to hate each other and ourselves,
Often a toss-up who we despise more.
We were taken from society to be caged up for the wrong we’ve done.
What they don’t know is that there is no cell big enough to cage our demons.
It’s why so many come back.
This is a chaotic hodgepodge sisterhood.
I have a sister here who’s spent more than half of her life here for killing a man who tried killing her and her unborn child
Because the state does not recognize self-defense.
Because of ll this, she lost the child anyway…to the system.
I have a sister who’s been haunted by the ghost of her child that she shot in a drug induced haze, thinking it was an intruder.
I have a sister who overdosed and blacked out for several hours as her child drowned in the tub.
Lately, I’ve had several sisters leave and go home.
But they went home and died.
These people, these sisters, are broken smiles and broken teeth.
They are premature gray hair and crows feet; not laughter lines.
They are a map of gunshots, knife wounds and track marks.
A lot of the bruises have faded to the average eye, But us, we can still see the remnants on each other.
We fight, we criticize.
We laugh, we cry.
Some days we do all of the above.
Memories of the life outside this dimension are fading.
Out there somewhere, people I used to know are gathering.
People I used to know are wining and dining.
People I used to know are dancing and people are growing.
Out there, people I used to know are loving and they’re changing,
Out there people are dividing and uniting.
But in here, these ghostly shells of people that once were…
Now, these are my people.
Sobering isn’t it?
jeanne blodnikar
The beautiful brave woman from Poland was amazing and inspiring.
Katie’s writing was so moving, I cried. I must keep her in prayer.
Donna
Thank you for the comments! Yes, we don’t know what we may be called on to do in this crazy future. She didn’t even hesitate! I pray we will all be so motivated to do the right thing.
Katie is doing so much better! Still pray, for her and so many others that are drowning in a sea of prison uniforms with no Bible study because the wolf wants control!