I was recently contacted via email by a cousin I haven't seen since I was nine years old. She too suffered from parental and spousal abuse and her sister is a librarian and ran across my book in the library and put two and two together and figured out it was their cousin (yours truly!).

As we've been emailing, I realize there was much more abuse and mental illness in my family. This is four cousins that have contacted me after reading my book and as we all share our horror stories, it's just so depressing.

I think my father's sisters were worse than the boys. Horrible and vile treatment of their children, drug abuse and they were/are Pentecostal fanatics. Maybe they looked for a cure through their religion?

There have been so many times that I've feared I'd end up in a state mental hospital, in a corner and drooling on myself because my father always told me I was mentally ill. Today, I think he was transfering his own disease onto me.

I grieve for those who suffer from something society either doesn't understand or doesn't want to understand because it makes them uncomfortable.

[ January 24, 2006, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: Dianne ]