Memoir

There is a common belief that an ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness and banish them, as I did as a child and as an adult. Even as a young child, I endured and survived unspeakable traumas and adversities. Most of all, I found hope. As a national expert on child abuse and neglect (retired), I am uniquely qualified to write this deeply personal memoir. The Well of Sorrow follows my young siblings and me in our determination to survive the household our mother deemed “too violent” to stay in. My childhood is one of violence and trauma but also a story of hope, healing and survival sustained by sibling connection, serendipity, random acts of kindness, grit, and a will to survive.