Childhood

I was born on November 22, 1954, as Cecilia Urbano/ Ritsuko Kinjo. My father Alberto Mendoza Urbano was born of a Filipino mother and an Italian father. After becoming a Japanese citizen, he changed his name to Al Kinjo. My mother Tsuruko Kinjo was a Japanese from Naha, Okinawa. My mother lost both of her parents during World War II in Okinawa.

My parents got married, even though back then, an international marriage was frowned upon. My father had stayed after journeying on a navy submarine from the Philippines to fix the roads on Okinawa damaged during the war. He was promised to become a US citizen. The submarine was going toward San Diego, California, but made a detour to land in Okinawa. Thank God as I would have never been born if my father had landed in San Diego.

I was the second of four children. When I was three, I had kidney problems and was urinating blood. So my mother thought I would be a weakling, but I proved her wrong. I was like a boy, playing only with neighborhood boys, riding and racing bicycles, climbing trees, and forming a boys' group with myself as the team leader. I wore cutoff jean shorts until I was fourteen and rumbled like a boy. I was a tomboy.

Early memories of childhood:

When I was five years old, I got in trouble with my mother. She spanked me and wouldn't let me in the house after I had dirtied my new dress.

I decided to run away and look for my father who was still working far away. I was determined to find him.

Somehow, I was inside a UFO. The beings asked if I'd like to go home with them. I was happy and said yes. They gave me some kind of candy after I showed them a dance I had learned on TV. They said how much they loved me and gave me lots of hugs.

Soon afterward, I had forgotten about my troubles and wanted to go and look for my father. I was no longer in their craft, but I followed the light they were shining, directing me to a policeman's box. I had walked almost a mile (seemed like) alone. I told the policeman that I was going to my father's work. Somehow, I remembered where I lived, and the policeman walked me home. My mother thanked him, and until recently, she still wondered how I was able to walk that far, looking for my father. That was my first acquaintance with the beings. They called me Celia.

My recollection of the second time being with them was when I was ten or eleven. My body was instantly frozen, unmovable; only my mind was awake and cognizant. I had lost my appetite for days, and my memory was not good. I don't remember much, but after the incident, I was daydreaming a lot and was very absentminded. I wore my hair curlers to school. I wore mismatched shoes. One time, I wore one house slipper on one foot and a shoe on the other foot. I was told how silly I was at school, and my elder sis Lynn was embarrassed with me. I felt that my experience with the beings made me feel so out of it and not with the moment. I was not normal. I believed at that time that Superman was stronger than God. I also believed deeply and told everyone that I myself would never die and I would keep living and living. I was not afraid of dying; nothing scared me.

When I was sixteen, I was in a car accident — a head-on collision with a drunk driver that would leave me in stitches on my face and head and a broken wrist. The car I was in was mangled up, and the backside was smashed in all the way to the front, and they had to pull me out of the car. I was bandaged and gauzed up like a mummy. My driver, my nineteen-year-old boyfriend, had a broken foot. I was near death. I had a four-hour surgery getting stitched up. I got home the next morning, and when my mother opened the door, she looked at me, shocked, as they had been worried all night when I didn't get home. We cried in each other's arms. I was somehow saved.

I went back to school, and ever since then, I knew I didn't belong to this world. I sensed that the classroom I was in was not real. I longed to be outside, playing, roaming around. I would daydream about it for the longest time. I was only interested in paranormal books of reincarnation, the Dalai Lama, Kahlil Gibran, Gina Cerminara, Edgar Cayce, hypnotism, etc. I had no interest in schoolwork; I was failing.

My mother was worried that I was too rapt up and intense in my readings. She took my reading lamp away and hid it from me. She said it was bad for my eyes. I would stay awake all night, reading, and couldn't wake up in the morning to go to school. I managed to read under the covers with a flashlight. I was desperate and determined. I was obsessed with the occult and paranormal subjects. Somehow, I didn't know at that time that they were all linked to bring me to the horrifying experience twenty years later.

Sometimes I was abruptly taken to a spaceship, and they were doing many tests. They were checking up on my growth and changes from a little girl to adolescent. And when this happened, I hated not being in control. My body would be paralyzed, and although my mind would be alert, my physical body had no control over anything. As soon as I thought I was there being tested, I would be back in bed, feeling sick, wanting to throw up. I couldn't tell anyone about my experiences with these beings. I myself didn't understand what was happening to me and why they were doing these things to me.

By the time I was a junior in high school, I was able to keep...