January 7, 2016 - Members of the Center Women’s Reading Club met on November 19, 2015 at the lovely home of Barbara Prince. President Janene Walker presided.
After the business meeting concluded, Billie Sue Payne presented her book Escape by Carolyn Jessop. Escape is the dramatic first-person account of life inside the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints (FLDS), a radical offshoot of the Mormon Church, and her escape from the community with her children. The sect had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border.
Carolyn Jessop was just 18 years old when she was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger. The man was Merril Jessop, a fifty five year old man who already had three wives. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children.
The book describes in detail her life living with a dictatorial husband, his other wives and their children. Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whim. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a schoolteacher. In the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status she and her children held in the family. A husband could decide who got money and who did not, and how much money. All earned money went to the husband/father.
Although Carolyn had been raised in a FDLS, life in this community was miserable. Religion became more extreme. The men were believed to have the spirit of God and could get the divine revelation from God that pertained to his family. Women and children had no rights at all.
Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her and she would most likely end up in an mental institution. No woman had ever escaped from the FDLS with all her children. Some had escaped but had only taken the younger children. But Carolyn finally chose freedom over fear and started planning an escape.
Carolyn would have a very small window of opportunity for an escape. Her oldest child, Arthur, had been working construction jobs outside the community since he was 12 years old and only came home on weekends. Her husband was often gone during the week but home on the weekends.
April 21, 2003, her window opened. Arthur was home during the week for a dental appointment and Merril had left for Salt Lake City and wouldn’t be back until the following day. She decided it was “now or never”. She called her brother in Salt Lake City, who had left the cult a few years earlier. He promised to come help but he would not risk getting caught by the local police, also known as the God Squad. He would drive all night and meet her at 5am at Canaan Corners, several miles out of town. But she had to get there with her children.
She stayed up all night and got two days’ worth of clothes for the children and herself together. She had $20.00. When she was ready, she quietly went through the house, waking up her children who were sleeping with the other children. She needed them to get up, get dressed and into the van without anyone hearing them. Somehow she managed to get them into the van and drove to Canaan Corners. Her brother was waiting for them. They drove to Salt Lake City and stayed in hiding with help of a man who helped others escape from the cult.
Today she is trying to get on with her life as a single mother with 8 children. Although life may be difficult for her now, it will never be as bad as what she experienced in Colorado City.
Delicious refreshments were served by Mrs. Prince and a time of fellowship followed.
