One of my earliest memories. I was around 4 years old, possibly even 3. A large number of family members in a not-so-large house. I remember running through the halls between the bedrooms, as I was playing chase with some cousins a bit younger than me.
And is that all it took? He must have been watching me from the doorway of one of the bedrooms. I didn’t notice – I was enjoying the stomping noise my Buster Brown shoes were making on the hard wood floors.
Then – Did he grab me? Or did he just take me away by the hand? I really don’t remember.
I remember him closing the door to the bedroom – and the large luggage trunk sitting up on its end. He picked me up and sat me on it and hurriedly unzipped his pants. I remember him taking a large sausage out of his pants. It was flat on the end – not round, like the end of a sausage. Was he uncircumcised?
He then quickly pulled my panties to the side and rubbed against me.
His words I remember: “Ah! That’s better now.”
He quickly put me down, patted me on the rear, and said, “You go play now.”
And I skipped out of the bedroom, anxious to get back to my cousins.
That molestation couldn’t have taken longer than 2 minutes. That’s how quickly a child can be violated.
In a houseful of people. A child doesn’t necessarily have to be alone with someone.
And I didn’t tell anyone for nearly 2 decades.
Why am I telling you this?
1 in every 4 girls are sexually abused by the time they are 18 years old. 1 in 6 boys. Less than a third of cases are ever reported.(1) Mine wasn’t.
Jerry Sandusky’s abuse should have only happened once. We have to make it okay for kids to tell! Many are afraid that nobody will believe them. Sandusky’s victims were.
The statistics are startling, aren’t they? In the 100 or so of you that regularly read my little blog, the statistics say that at least 2 dozen of you have survived sexual abuse. Have you told?
I’m opening up guest post spots for you to finally tell others about how you were a victim of sexual abuse. Just send me a message on my contact page. It can be anonymous.
How can we ask children to tell, if we, as adults, don’t?
Share this page on Facebook, Pin It, Tweet It. Let everyone know that it’s okay to tell!
