sexual abuse

Something about age eight

Last evening after supper, I was alone in the house putting away clean dishes, thinking. Grandma was outside on the patio watching Jeff and the boys toss the football around the backyard. I was drying things and putting them in their places, then loading the dirty supper dishes in the dishwasher, starting to fill it

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Just making a note…

I need to shut down and get to bed VERY SOON, but am making a “mental note” of sorts before the day is completely over. When I woke this morning, I told Jeff I’d just had a bad dream. I didn’t say what about. Later in the day, I kept thinking about it. What I

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Five books that have influenced me the most: Book 1

A couple months ago, a friend from my book discussion group suggested that members choose the five books that have most influenced / impacted them – not one’s “favorite books” nor necessarily what one considers the “best books” read so far, but books which had some significant, lasting impact on the member’s thinking, ideas, or

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I call it “All the parts” because …

In the summer of 1993, my Aunt Helen lent me the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. When I returned it to her, I told her my biggest secret: that I had been sexually abused when I was a child. She said to me, as we both cried, “You’ve really lived a

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