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Norman Mavelly

Norman Mavelly

I don't really know much about Norman Mavelly. He was born December 26th 1934 to William and Mary Ellen, and died in 2009 at the age of 74. He was adopted by my grandfather's parents and is listed as Harold Mavelly's step-brother. The thing is when I was a child he was later on in his years, so I don't believe I was subjected to the same treatment as my sister and definitely not my brother from him. I only saw the man once or twice in my youth whenever we would visit Bennington for Christmas. The only malice I received from him was that he saw that I was given a Christmas gift of the movie King Zilla to which when I showed Norman he asked "can I borrow it and give it back to you, I've never seen that movie" To which being six years old or so I said "sure." After I did so my grandfather told me that I would never get that movie back which turned out to be true.

One regular occurrence whenever my family visited Bennington, both parents and all three siblings, was that my mother specifically with my father present would ask me "did Norman take you alone anywhere." And questioned me about if I had spent any time with him at all and I replied "no", because it was the truth. When I bring up this man to my sister she seems to have positive memories but my brother is the exact opposite, having being subjected to molestation.

Years down the road when I was in my late twenties I began analyzing my childhood and some of the events that I had just lived with thinking it was a normal upbringing. This analysis made me take an outside look at who my parents were and how they raised us to which I called my brother to discuss our parents. When I told him how they were terrible people and brought up the sexual abuse with the clothespin when I was three was "fucked up beyond belief, why would you do that to your child?" He took a second to see the truth and agreed and I believe talking about that he said he got it worse in his youth from our Grandfather's step-brother Norman Mavelly.

In the phone conversation he said "I'm going to tell you something that I've only told one person in my life and it wasn't mom or dad." I asked "what happened?" He told me that "When I was a kid, Norman molested me". My thing is given the questioning of me and spending time with Norman alone that my parents. most notably my father knew this man was a child molester yet still allowed his children to be left alone or under his care with him.

It is unfortunate that the man died 11 years before I was told this because I would have done something. The thing is my brother was the victim and the blame I put most upon is my mother and grandparents that let him around us and my father for not beating him to a pulp at just the knowledge of who he was, regardless of the fact he molested his son. It is just an unfortunate occurrence that my brother had to go to and I was too young to make a difference.