Many of us have realized how resourceful young children can be. That resourcefulness may even show up in the most incredible ways, as happened in southwestern France.
It all happened at an apartment in Nersac, where a 9-year-old French child was left entirely alone by his mother. She had abandoned him, but he wasn’t going to give up that quickly.
For two years, he lived at the apartment on his own. At times, he had to live without electricity or heat but he continued to do what he could to keep his life going. This included taking himself to school.
From the ages of nine to 11, the young boy was living all on his own. Nobody noticed that the young child was living in this situation, including the school. They even reported that he was a good student.
Sometimes, the neighbors would bring him food but they still didn’t know that he was on his own. He would eat canned food and cake, just to get by.
Sometimes, he would go to a neighbor’s balcony and grab tomatoes to eat as well. He had to sleep with three large comforters, as he often didn’t have heat and electricity and he would use cold water to wash himself.
Meanwhile, his mother only lived 5 km away from her son in a neighboring community. On occasion, the 39-year-old woman would visit him to give him food but it was not very often.
There hasn’t been any news about the boy’s father and it seems as if he is completely absent from the young one’s life. The mother and father had been separated and she decided to leave the apartment, and her child behind.
After many months had passed, the neighbors realized that the boy was living on his own so they called the police. According to the mayor of the community: ” challenge anyone who would’ve been able to detect this situation: a clean boy, a good student who was doing his homework.
“I think it was also a kind of protective shield that he built around himself to say ‘everything is fine.’”
One of the neighbors did report that she was verbally abusive to her son and they could hear her swearing regularly.
The mother, who has kept her identity hidden, was prosecuted for abandoning her child and for not looking after his safety.
In court, they showed phone records to demonstrate that she was not living with her son and that he went to school and continued to work on his grades. When she was probed, she rejected the allegations, but the neighbors proved he was living alone.
The boy’s mother was sentenced to 18 months in prison and will wear an electronic monitoring device for six months. Now that the youngster is in his teens, he says she has only seen him once in his foster home and he does not want any more contact from her.