"I am looking to rent a mum and dad"

At this time of year, it’s so easy to get caught up in the details of Christmas holiday planning. Hot or cold food? Four presents each or three?

Then a story like this ones comes along and serves as a reminder of how lucky we are to even have someone to sit at the table with.

Jackie Turner, a college student from Rocklin, California, has just one thing on her wishlist these holidays: a loving family.

So the 26-year-old placed an ad on classifieds website Craigslist, called ‘I want to rent a mom and dad’. “I am looking to rent a mom and dad who can give me attention and make me feel like the light of their life just for a couple of days because I really need it,” she wrote, offering to pay $8 for each hour of the chosen couple’s services.

Jackie’s ad, which has now been removed, caught the attention of Rocklin’s local news station, News 10. In an interview with reporter Nick Monacelli, she revealed the heartbreaking story behind it.

Emotionally, physically and sexually abused since she was just a child, Jackie spent years living on the streets, where she began taking drugs and fighting, and became involved in a gang. After spending a year in jail for grand theft, she attended a camp for troubled youths, and is now a presidential scholar at her university.

Although she’s managed to pull her life together, Jackie says the memory of her traumatic childhood – and her estranged parents – lingers. “There’s this void, my biological parents aren’t here, and it’s kept this hole inside of me.”

In posting the ad, she hoped to find somebody who would simply sit, listen and cry with her. “I’ve never felt the touch of my Mom hugging me and holding me. I don’t know what it’s like to look in my dad’s eyes and feel love instead of hatred.”

Jackie received several responses from families willing to help her free of charge; but her ad also struck a chord with men and women who had equally troubled upbringings. A number of people have emailed Jackie, sharing their own stories of abuse and neglect. She’s now planning to organise a gathering for those who contacted her, to ensure they all have company this holiday season.

“Often we lock things inside of ourselves, like a lockbox of our secrets. But then you let one out and realise, ‘I’m not by myself after all, am I?” she says.