Hurt is all around you
I have just a few close friends. It has always been that way for me. Just one or two people whom I'd value beyond all others, then a couple more I liked spending time with. Apart from that, only people I considered acquaintances, nothing more. Lately, the last couple of months, my group of friends has changed. Currently, all of my close friends are gay, God knows what that says about me. Anyway, they're special, every one of them a very distinct personality. Which is good, I guess. But the more I get to know them, the more horrified I get.
You know how you hear about child abuse? Horrible stories on the news or on the internet about children getting molested, parents beating their kids and that sort of thing. It troubles me to realize how closely affected I am by such stories.
My closest friend, let's call her Amy. Amy graduated with me, is a year older than me and is know going to nursing school. Recently, she opened up about her past. Her parents separated when she was about 13, 14 years old because her Dad was a drunk. Her mom took her sisters with her, but when she wanted to take Amy, the oldest, with her, Amy's grandma stepped in and told her to stay, or else her Dad would die. So she stayed and watched her Dad drink himself to death, while her Mom stopped calling or otherwise contacting her. So when she was 15, she was a half-orphan. Her grandfather from her father's side decided it would be a good time to start molesting her.
Only when he abused both her and her younger sister sexually did she speak up and was taken into custody.
All the while she had no place to stay- thankfully, her dance instructor, a woman of about 30 years, had pity on her and more or less adopted her, acquiring legal custody.
When this woman and her family found out what was happening, they maintained a position that "the poor man has lost his wife and child, the poor, poor man is sick and dying of COPD, give him a break". Thus, when in court, she gave into the pressure and lied, protecting him.
Oh, and the court psychologist she had to see then apparently found their talks so interesting, he tried to convince her to meet him in his office after hours, in a more private atmosphere. So that the could talk more, since it meant so much to him.
All the while, she was living with this woman, who was being nice to her. Very nice. So nice that she declared her love to Amy and started a relationship with her. This went on for three years and was consensual, if not legal. At a certain point however, Amy started having problems during sex, reliving those moments with her grandfather every time she slept with her- for lack of a better term- girlfriend. Her girlfriend didn't notice and when Amy finally opened up and told her she can't have sex right know, feeling this way, her girlfriend respected that. For about a week.
Now, a year later, the two of them are no longer a couple. But Amy's grandfather's COPD has acted up and his condition has worsened. So now, after she renewed her relationship to him, she is the one taking care of him, additionally to her aunt, who has been doing so for the last few years. He made her promise to him that she wouldn't leave this godforsaken town until he was dead.
I just don't have the words. I feel so powerless and angry and sick to the stomach when I think about her nursing the man who molested her, that son of a bitch who should rot in prison or otherwise be locked up in a psychiatric institution. How can things like this happen?
And I haven't even started talking about my best male friend, who mother abused him and his little sister for years, locking them into the windowless bathroom when they were bothering her and she wanted to have sex with her varying boyfriends undisturbed...
Above all, I feel so lucky and grateful. In comparison, my family is perfect. And that's just completely random luck. It could have been me.