You can never have enough...

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Some folk should never be parents. There should be a one strike and you are out law with child abuse, but then I remember a friend years ago, who was falsely accused of child abuse by his wife as part of the divorce proceedings. He told us he couldn't prove her wrong, even if the kids stood up for him he was ruined and destroyed by the smearing. He killed himself.

One of my daughters friends used to show up at our place every chance she got, and stay. I never cottoned on till much much later, when after we left to come back to Auckland we heard she had hung herslf in the family garage, leaving a note laying out the details of the long history of family sexual abuse she had endured. She was such a beautiful young woman, and I felt such guilt at never realising how wrong her life was, how hurt she was. How safe she felt in our all female family home.

We do not know the stories behind the faces we meet, the conversations we have. It pays to be kind, it might just be that little thing that helps someone else survive unspoken horrors.