Shh, It’s a Secret

By Joyce Davis

Funerals are tough for most people. To lose a loved one is a hard place to be for anyone. I find even within the family each person deals with it differently.

My family has an extra added piece of heartache to it. #MeToo is not just for me alone. Each time I go to a funeral I find out more family secrets of rape and molestation. In this generation of #TimesUp people are speaking out and one person in my family has an article against him so terrible it makes me cringe and I have another relative who was arrested recently for rape. I know for a fact that the same brother who molested me molested him as well. I know that we all went to my father and told him the truth and he believed the person who molested us.

I write this not to air dirty family secrets but I know my family is not the only family out there who keeps secrets. What is to be done? Seriously, do you turn in a whole family? Who wants to be a narc on the whole family?

My mom took us out of the situation so I don’t know what is going on now but I know that tigers don’t change their stripes. Pedophiles don’t decide one day I had enough. I worry about the secrets that kill futures.

Today we listen more to victims but do we listen enough? I can’t say. I will say if ever you see something, call it out. At the very least make those in the family aware.

Funerals are triggering when there are family secrets. Little by little I expose what I know. They may stop inviting me all together. Shh. It’s a secret.