The reader will be drawn
irresistibly into the world
of the author who presents a
catalogue of abuse and
cruelty suffered by herself
as an innocent child, first
at the hands of her
alcoholic father, then by
nuns, and later by a
heartless husband who raped
and beat her. This is
compulsive reading.
This
book about extreme cruelty
by a daddy for his children
and his loving wife is
written simply and from the
heart, much of it from the
point of view of the little
girl Emelia who suffered
unimaginable torture at the
hands of her abusive,
alcoholic father. "I wrote
this book simply, like a
little girl but with the
heart of a woman," the
author says. "You will find
no words that you can't
pronounce or understand.
What you will find is the
open heart of a little girl,
then of the woman she
became." The author goes on
to give a vivid and
heartfelt account of the
abuse the same little girl
suffered at the hands of
nuns, supposedly the agents
of God’s love and mercy,
behind the closed doors of a
convent; thereafter she
reveals how she found
herself in a
life-threatening situation,
brought about by her own
hand at fifteen, as a result
of an unfeeling husband who
raped and beat her. The
picture she paints is made
all the more poignant by the
loss of the one true love
whose memory will never die,
by the loss of a devoted
brother who couldn’t stay
because God wanted him more,
and by the unconditional
love of a mother prepared to
sacrifice anything for her
children.
The book shows how the
shadow of a father’s cruelty
can be cast over the whole
life of a child--a child
who, in this instance, never
failed to turn the other
cheek, or return love for
cruelty and abuse, who
manifested, in the end, the
overriding power and
strength of Christ who
advocated love above all
things. The book is a
protest against domestic
violence and
institutionalized cruelty,
and will hopefully stand as
a beacon and warning against
the violations suffered by
so many Emelias whose
heartfelt cries go unheard
behind the closed or locked
doors of our apparently
respectable western
civilization.