“I find your story highly relatable … I’m glad you wrote it”

A big thank you to Ms. Rogers for allowing me to post parts of her email, below, about my book. She is another reader who took something away from my story and was glad she read it.

Kate Rogers, author and teacher, Toronto, ON

I recently finished your memoir Rag Dolls and Rage. It’s a compelling read. Much of the description of your childhood is vivid, particularly the section living with your mother and Terry. The cruelties and sexual abuse he inflicted on you were horrific. I think you were very brave to write about that time in your life. I also think you were brave to write about your mother in such an honest way. Many writers idealize their mothers because it’s too painful to see them as they really were. I appreciate that you described your mother with love, yet remained honest about her anger and mood swings and their impact on you from childhood to adulthood.

The frame of sessions with Dr. Beal works pretty well. I think that was a good idea. I was especially struck by Dr. Beal’s observation that you are an empathetic person who can blame herself for things she’s not responsible for. The description of guilt “akin to the survivor’s guilt that some soldiers suffer from in wars” rings true … I know all those emotions from personal experience, so I find your story highly relatable … The detailed and visceral description in your memoir is evocative …Thank you for writing your book. Parts of it will stay with me. I’m glad you wrote it … one of the things I realized from reading your memoir is the universal nature of emotional abuse. That was the most relatable thing from your memoir for me.

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I wrote Rag Dolls and Rage for three reasons, as I mentioned some months ago.

They are to:

(a) self-heal, by facing my demons … by dealing with PTSD (yes, it CAN be done)

(b) provide help to readers who have endured painful childhoods in some way themselves

(c) raise funds through sales for SAVIS*, a charity you can learn of on my “About” tab

* One of the reasons I support SAVIS of Halton with yearly charitable donations from sales of my book, is because the organization supports children, and adults, that suffer abuse of all forms.