For 18 years, Jaycee Dugard wished on the moon.
Some of Jaycee’s wishes were the same as those of other young girls. She wanted to learn to drive, to swim with dolphins and to fall in love.
Other things Jaycee desired were much different. She wanted to live in a house instead of a tent. She wanted to urinate in a toilet instead of a bucket. She wanted her two young daughters to be allowed to attend school. She longed to rewind her life to the day when she was just an 11-year-old girl walking to the bus stop. If she could go back in time, perhaps Jaycee could avoid being kidnapped and the 18 years of abuse that followed.
Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped June 10, 1991 by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. She spent the next 18 years living in a series of sheds and tents in her captors backyard.
When she had the emotional courage to look at the moon, she wished for one thing more than anything else. She wanted to see her mother. She wanted to debate which type of moon was better and hear her mother sing a little song about the moon to her.
For nearly two decades, every system put into place to protect innocent people like Jaycee from monsters like the Garridos failed repeatedly. Jaycee lived a nightmare that most of us could not survive.
In another amazing act of strength, Jaycee shares her story in the book A Stolen Life: A Memoir
The writing in the book is pure, simple and immature. It is not the writing of seasoned author, but it doesn’t matter. The strength and resilience in the authors character carry through the pages.
Jaycee Dugard never got to go to the prom. She’ll never experience the lightheaded tingle that results from your first kiss. She didn’t walk across the stage to collect her diploma. She didn’t watch her true love’s tears of wonder as their first child was born.
Jaycee was robbed of so much of the normalcy that every young girl deserves. The people who stole her teen years were the kind who don’t deserve to exist.
Jaycee had another wish for her future that she wrote in a journal and shared in her book. She wanted to write a bestseller. She deserves at least that.
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