Elizabeth Pool (front, middle) with her adopted father, Ken Pool (left), her mother, Sarah Pool (back, middle), and her sister, Cara Pool (right) at a football game. The Pools adopted Elizabeth two years ago from Casa Hogar in Mexico.

Beatings were a common part of Elizabeth Pool’s childhood. When she was 6 her parents divorced, then the beatings became daily. Her mother, Marlena, would come home from the restaurant where she waitressed, drunk or high. When intoxicated, Marlena never seemed to care about anything. Not which type of drugs she used, not which brand of booze she drank, not which of her children she beat, not which weapon she beat them with.

Elizabeth, her mother and her older brother Arturo lived in a small, one-bedroom house, connected to Marlena’s workplace, just outside Mexico City. Every day she came home after work, under the influence of whatever she could get her hands on, and picked her victim. When she came for Elizabeth, Arturo would dive in front of her and cover her with his body. He would smile and tell his sister to look him the eyes, insisting that everything was going to be okay.

And most of the time, it was. Elizabeth had Arturo to protect her and school to keep her busy. She was smart and pretty, popular amongst her peers. Every day she hid the real truth behind the bruises that covered her body.

“I was terrified that if I told anyone that she would kill me,” Elizabeth said.

One night, Marlena almost did.

***
“What have you done with them,” Marlena said. “I know you have the papers.”
Marlena’s boss at the restaurant could not find some important papers. She told Marlena that if she didn’t find them, she would be fired. Elizabeth, only 6 years old, did not know what she was talking about. Yet, she could tell that this was going to be unlike anything before. Her mother was frantic, with a wild look in her eyes. Fearing that she would upset her more, Elizabeth said she took them. Her mother seemed appeased for the time being. She began to search the house, but found nothing.

The next morning, Elizabeth went to the restaurant to eat breakfast. Her mother followed, carrying two bottles of rubbing alcohol, and took a swig. Elizabeth knew that something was about to go horribly wrong.

“I want the papers right now,” Marlena said, slapping Elizabeth across the face.

Behind Marlena was a box of matchsticks. She grabbed the box, took out a single match, struck it and threw it on Elizabeth. She ripped off her sweater as it caught fire and ran into the kitchen, screaming for her mother to stop. She begged the cook for help. Elizabeth moved to the other side of the table, away from her hysterical mother and the cook. The cook tried to calm Marlena but instead she only seemed to grow angrier. Marlena pushed the table and knocked Elizabeth onto the hot stoves behind her.

Elizabeth’s face, neck and chest were all burned by the heat of the stoves. Screaming, she searched for an escape, but found all of the doors were closed. She noticed the back door, made of glass, and ran toward it. As she made contact with it, the glass shattered, cutting her entire body. For moment, everything went black. Then, she felt Marlena grab her hair and shout for her to wake up. She was taken to the hospital with third degree burns.

She lost too much blood and needed a transfusion. The only available donor, her father. He stayed long enough for Elizabeth to receive the blood and then left. It would be the last time she would see her father.

Because the hospital was not well-equipped, the doctors could not transfer her for fear her skin would become infected. Yet, both they and the nurses marveled at Elizabeth’s fight to stay alive.

“There’s something in this life that you have to do because you’re so strong,” they told her.

After she spent a year in the hospital, 7 year old Elizabeth went back to live with her mother. For a while things were okay. Marlena would cry and apologize to Elizabeth every day, begging her for forgiveness. But while Elizabeth fully healed, Arturo began to take the brunt of the beatings. After he got into a fight with a neighbor and almost died, Marlena decided she could no longer care for him. She made arrangements to take him to an orphanage.

Marlena told Elizabeth of her plan but kept it a secret from Arturo. She told him that he was going on a trip. He wouldn’t be allowed to leave the orphanage until he turned 18. Marlena allowed Elizabeth to sleep in Arturo’s bed the last night he was home. She didn’t think she would ever see her brother again.

“I hugged him so much because I knew that it was going to be the last time,” Elizabeth said. “He needed to be in another place, without my mom.”

The next morning, as he began to leave, he turned around.

“I love you and I’ll see you later,” Arturo said.

Now alone with her mother, Elizabeth began to deal with the residual trauma of her accident. When they saw the burns on her face, the children at school would call her a monster and run away. She was confused. She used to be so popular. But her mother had broken all of the mirrors in the house so she never saw the scars. The scars her mother made.

Then one day, her mom told her that they were going to a party. Marlena dressed her up in a yellow lace dress and curled her hair in thick ringlets. As Marlena primped Elizabeth, she drank. Once Elizabeth was done, Marlena demanded Elizabeth start her shower. To have hot water, they had to boil a pot of water and mix it with cold water in a tank.

Elizabeth looked at the pot. It was almost as big as her 8-year-old self. She told her mother that she couldn’t. She was too small. But Marlena told her if she didn’t do it, they wouldn’t go to the party. Devastated, Elizabeth attempted to lift the pot. Her fingers got stuck and the pot dumped on her. It burned her skin. Marlena grabbed her by the front of the dress and yanked. The dress stuck to her skin, ripping it off of her body.

Chest red and sizzling, Elizabeth was taken to the hospital again. This time, she stayed for four months. But after she returned, her mother was not as apologetic as before.

“She says, ‘Do you know why no one likes you anymore?’” Elizabeth said. “‘Because you are so ugly.’ It was the first time someone who loved me called me ugly.”

Finally fed up with it all, Elizabeth snuck out and sought refuge with her mom’s best friend. She told her everything and cried in her arms. The friend took her to Mexico’s Child Protective Services, and they told her she needed to be somewhere her mother would not find her. They took her to an orphanage, almost like Arturo’s. But they abused her, too. Elizabeth went back to CPS. This time they took her to Casa Hogar, a girls’ home in Santa Julia.

***

A nun sat beside Elizabeth. Deep-set wrinkles lined her face and silver, curly hair rested beneath a coif. She smiled and asked if Elizabeth wanted a cookie. She took one. Before, she couldn’t have afforded such a delicacy. The simple cookie was unlike anything she had tasted before. The nun told Elizabeth that her name was Madré Chuy and welcomed her to her new home.
Madré Chuy led her on a tour of the house. Elizabeth was in awe. Over 40 girls and several nuns lived in the home. All with stories similar to hers. They were playing and dancing and doing homework. She would have her own bed, all the clothes she wanted and three meals a day.

“It was like heaven,” Elizabeth said.

For six years, Elizabeth lived in Casa Hogar. During that time, she always feared the abuse would start again. One night, after her hug was rejected, Madré Chuy kneeled beside her bed and prayed.

“Don’t ever run from love,” she whispered in her ear.

The next morning, Elizabeth walked up to Madré Chuy, and wrapped her arms around her.

“We’re your mothers now,” Madré Chuy said. “We would never hurt you.”

Madré Chuy’s wisdom stuck with Elizabeth as she became close with one of the volunteers. Her name was Melissa Pool and she was visiting from the United States. Her blonde hair fascinated Elizabeth. She cried when Melissa left at the end of the summer.
But Melissa returned the next year with her family. Elizabeth and Melissa’s younger brother, Justin, became inseparable. When the Pools returned home, Justin begged his parents to let Elizabeth be his sister.

The adoption process took about two years, but Elizabeth finally found the family she always dreamed of.

***

Now a senior, Elizabeth poses and flashes a smile. The photographer tells her to turn her head this way and that way. The shutter captures her in a red cap and gown, just like the one she will graduate in. She doesn’t think about the now subtle scars that remain on her body. Today, she feels like a princess.

Since leaving Mexico, Elizabeth has been able to locate Arturo. He’s now in college in Mexico studying business.Whether through phone calls or texts, they talk every day. Although a sensitive topic, Marlena occasionally comes up. He told her she remarried to a devout Catholic and is very involved in the church. She thinks that Elizabeth died a decade ago. She cries every time Elizabeth is mentioned.

Arturo still hasn’t told Marlena about Elizabeth’s adoption. Elizabeth isn’t quite ready to speak with her mother. But she has made some peace with her past.

“She had too many opportunities to take my life,” Elizabeth said. “Even after how bad she was, there was still some love inside of her.”

Although the physical scars are fading, Elizabeth will never forget how they got there. But, the love and support of the Pools and Madré Chuy’s wisdom to never run from love, have put her on a path of healing.

“Now I really love myself,” Elizabeth said. “I have made myself strong and [my scars] are a symbol that I have to keep going.”