CPOY 72 Domestic Picture Story Gold: Patricia's Doll
Patricia is known in her community as “the doll woman,” and is often bullied when people do not know her story. She suffered brain damage as a baby and has lived with a caretaker all of her life. At 12, she was raped by her father and became pregnant. She gave her son up for adoption and has never met him. Now 45, Patricia cares for her doll, Michael, among others as if they were real babies as a way to cope with trauma and the loss of her son.
Patricia writes a letter to her son asking him to come visit her. “I write my son letters all the time but I never know where to send them,” she said. Her son was supposed to meet Patricia when he turned 18, a moment she had looked forward to for years. He is now in his 20s and she has still never met him.
