Comment by Rose on November 16, 2008 4:36 pm<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nDearest Karen,<\/span><\/p>\nDuring our church service today I thought of you. The message of the day required deep thought of how a child<\/span>\u02bc<\/span>s life can be changed with careful interventions. A catholic girl thrown into the mist of unbearable trauma. Where did your heart of kindness come from? A nun? A priest, pastor or deacon? Who inspired your survival? How could you find true love and happiness after the pain endured? Do you believe in a higher power?<\/span><\/p>\nRose<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nDear Rose,<\/span><\/p>\nThank you for thinking of me!\u00a0 <\/span>It’s true a child’s path can be changed with the support of parents, family members, and the community.\u00a0 <\/span>Careful interventions would’ve helped me if they had presented themselves.\u00a0 <\/span>It was so unfortunate not to receive the support I needed to grow up feeling happy, strong, and secure, but somehow I managed to develop a supportive system within myself.\u00a0 <\/span>Being a Catholic girl wasn’t an issue, being an abused child with no one to turn to, was.<\/span><\/p>\nThere were a few people I met along the way who inspired me to grow.\u00a0 <\/span>I treasure memories of them.\u00a0 <\/span>There was one nun who took a liking to me.\u00a0 <\/span>She seemed to sense more than I shared with her.\u00a0 <\/span>She was attentive and kind and took special care of me when she saw my bruises.\u00a0 <\/span>There was the man who owned the ice cream parlor who listened to me over a chocolate phosphate or green river soda, and a pastor from a neighborhood church, not my own, that would sit and listen to me.\u00a0 <\/span>I never shared my abuse with any of them for fear of being judged, but I believe they all suspected.\u00a0 <\/span>It was me who always changed the subject or left when our talks got too near the truth.\u00a0 <\/span>I was ashamed and believed I was to blame for being abused.\u00a0 <\/span>I would simply gain some strength and acceptance from those talks that was so missing from my family life.\u00a0 <\/span>I found happiness and love through music and art, people with tender hearts, and finding small moments of peace.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd, yes, Rose, I believe in God,<\/span><\/p>\nKaren<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Comment by Rose on November 16, 2008 4:36 pm Dearest Karen, During our church service today I thought of you. The message of the day required deep thought of how a child\u02bcs life can be changed with careful interventions. A catholic girl thrown into the mist of unbearable trauma. Where did your heart of kindness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}