From Marie-Ange Mignot, 19 years old

I have always loved swings. My earliest playground memories are of my Dad pushing me on a swing. This was before I discovered the fine art of pushing your legs out then tucking them back in. Once I had that down, I went higher, much higher.

My name is Marie-Ange Mignot. I was born in a dandy clinic in New Delhi, India at approximately 5:20 p.m., April 3rd, 1986. I say approximately as the Indian doctors forgot to note the time of delivery on my birth certificate. I will never get over this stigma. My name is derived from a song that reached a certain height of popularity in The Family International at the time of my birth, namely: “On wings of love, came my angel Mariangela…”
Yes, I am still traumatized by this.

At 18 months I contracted double pneumonia and nearly died. I believe it is only by the grace of God that I am still alive. When I was two, my mother was sent back to Switzerland. My father didn’t come till a year later. When I was five, my parents were separated, my mom being sent TS (Trf Supporter, a circle of membership in the Family International that is now the equivalent of FM or Fellow Member.) along with my two older brothers and youngest sister. I did not see them again till I was eight and a half, three and a half years later.

For the next two years, they would visit for a few days every six months or so. A few days are not enough to get to know someone. When I was ten, I went to live with my mom, exchanging with my second oldest brother Philippe, who moved with my Dad. In August of that year, a month after his birthday, Phil was diagnosed with Terminal Brain Cancer. Four months later, December 24th 1996, Phil was dead. I never really knew my brother.
I spent the next few years in France.

Forced to comply with French schooling laws, I attended secular school from the age of 13 to 17. Majoring in languages and literature, I graduated at 17, a year in advance, obtaining the highest grade of my class in French Literature. A class composed of students whose mother tongue was French.
French, a language I learned to speak when I was ten, to write correctly when I was 13.

I look back at all I have experienced and I can truthfully say: I have had a wonderful life.

Had I gone through the same experiences in the secular world, I can’t guarantee you I’d be here; typing on this computer I managed to borrow from Ange because she’s sleeping. I’d probably be in an institution, guzzling the very latest in anti-depressants or better yet, watching my parents fight over my custody and that of my siblings.

My little sister has cerebral palsy. She shouldn’t walk or talk. She runs and yells at me, telling me “I’m really something nowadays.” She is a living miracle. And she also likes swings. But I have to push her which annoys me just a tad as I’d rather be on the adjacent swing, swaying along with her.
I blame her progress on the loving care and education my mom gave her ever since she was a wee little baby—talents my mom gained through her training and life in the Family International.

I blame my scholastic achievements on the education I received growing up in the Family International, an education I continue to this day as you never stop learning. My eldest brother, a self-taught computer genius who quit school at the age of 16, is going to teach me lay-out. I’m technologically illiterate so please pray for me.

The reason I am telling you my life story which you are probably not in the least interested in, is because I was appalled at what happened to Ricky and Angela, but even more so by the reactions it caused in the apostates of our group, the Family International.

I have a step-brother who I cherish dearly. He left the Family a little over two years now. He does not believe in God and declares himself a humanist; however he respects my decision to not only believe and love God but to remain in the Family International. He does not want to destroy my way of life or kill me. Just because he chose the slide over my preferred swing does not mean I love him any less, or he, me.

We are all different. We all choose different paths, different callings in life. This does not mean we cannot respect each other’s choices.

It hurt me that some would criticize my swing. Did I criticize your slide?

The Family has made mistakes in the past. Like any new movement, they were pioneering a radically new and completely different way of life, a life based on love and serving others. We all make mistakes when we first start learning something. But The Family has apologized for those mistakes and has repaired the glitches, glitches caused by man’s inability to truly love his neighbor as himself and to love God most of all.

I have never considered myself to have been abused. On the contrary, I believe I have lived a wonderful and enviable life up until now and if God grants me leave, I will continue to pursue it, here, as part of the Family International. I believe that nowhere else will I find this feeling of fulfillment and utter ecstasy that loving and sharing God’s love with others brings. A feeling very similar to that obtained at the highest pinnacle of a swing’s upper curve, that point where you forget you’re on a board attached to two chains and convince yourself that you’re actually flying through the sky.

I love my life. It is one I have chosen after much thought and deliberation. I respect the fact that it isn’t a life for everyone which is why I love you and am letting you have the slide.

So please sir, why do you want to take my swing?

Currently residing in the UK, Marie-Ange Mignot is a second generation member of the Family International.