Posts tagged with silence
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1 March 2015 - How we silence sexual abuse
Sexual abuse has cast a shadow over my family’s life. My mother was abused as a child by her step father, the man I grew up knowing as my grandfather. My cousin was also abused by him (repeatedly, for years). Friends I went to school with were abused by him. Children I met when I was with my grandmother while she babysat them were abused by him. In fact, I have no idea how many children my grandfather has abused over his lifetime but I suspect the numbers are huge since he is still alive and in his 90s.
I am grateful that I was never abused but what has happened around me has still affected me deeply. My grandmother and grandfather lived very nearby and we saw them regularly – actually, we saw grandma nearly daily. They were an integral part of my childhood and I always held two … Read the rest