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56. What an amazing story, CoffeeCat. Thank you SO much for sharing this pain and this dreadful burden

with us. Thank you for allowing us to see, in however a limited way we can, what kind of path you had to walk, and the insights it give us into families like the duggars. I don't have nearly as much of this kind of awareness as you do, living on the front lines of it throughout your young life. I had a fairly normal upbringing in that regard, anyway. For all her issues, my mom somehow managed to avoid passing on, to me, the battering she experienced at the hand of her rather cruel father. She once told me about the moment she stood looking down at him in his coffin, a few days after he died, and thinking "you can't hurt me anymore."

Your post gives me a lot to think about, CoffeeCat. Testaments like yours, and other DUers' posts here that speak of their own similarly-tormented childhoods, help the rest of us understand. They help the rest of us "get it." Get in deeply profound touch with this. Maybe not to walk in your shoes but at least to be able to follow close behind.

I greatly appreciate the stunning posts in this thread - the courage that you, CoffeeCat, and so many other DUers have shown as you somehow find your way to release and freedom from that horror you had to live with and grow up with. I think you're all calling the duggars what they are and illuminating what they did. Sharing your agony helps the rest of us grow and learn, and suffer with you. The courage! The generosity - that you would open up and share that horror and anguish. And the inspiration you are - for being able to get through it, get past it, and maybe even start healing.

Hopefully you can help guide the rest of us to that healing place as well.