Mary Williams, Jane Fonda’s “Lost Daughter”, Finds Hope
Marlise: So what created the anger that you had? Or did that happen later?
Mary Williams: The anger came when my father was in prison, a political prisoner because of his activities in the party. My mother was successful raising us for a while, but she had an injury and went on welfare. Then she got addicted to alcohol and lost her way, so we began to struggle as a family.
I started losing siblings. My older sister became a teenage prostitute. I was the youngest girl, I would see them you know, become victims of the environment that we were all living in – the inner city where there was a lot of drugs and prostitution and alcohol. I could see them one by one losing themselves. The person who should love me the most in the whole wide world, which is my mother, didn’t care for me. So that’s where a lot of my anger came from.
Marlise: I left home at 16 from an alcoholic father, so I understand when the person you think should love you – doesn’t or maybe can’t. You moved in with Jane (Fonda) when you were 14 – what it was like living in these two totally different households? And what did it take to realize you didn’t want to live with that pain and anger anymore?
Mary Williams: My mother found out that my sister was prostituting herself, and by then my father was out of prison, and when she came over one night my mother called my father and he beat her up. I remember my mother just kind of standing there, and that’s when my heart broke, broke in the sense like the love I had for my mother kind of fractured in that moment and I hated her.
