This is the story of a courageous young woman who grew up in a home headed by a sexual predator and an abused mother who lost her mind when Christine was only fourteen, disappearing until she was a mother herself. It recounts the secrets and lies that were designed to protect the darkest family secret of all, which had the effect of making the eight children strangers to each other, and then prisoners of the passions that disordered their lives, and set them against each other. Christine’s story is filled with intense dramas—the horrifying revenge of the chosen son, the struggle between mother and daughter to the edge of the grave, and finally, the saga of Christine’s climb out of the family wreck: how the birth of her child provided a new compass; how the family traumas failed to derail her quest to free herself and her new family from the chains of the past. The climax of her tale is a showdown with her siblings set off by the dark revelations of the sister at the center of the family secret. This is an inspiring, beautifully told story of individual courage with life lessons for others seeking to break free of similar circumstances.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.