The Road Still Bears His Name: Dawn's story of Overcoming Family Abuse

Good morning, Dawn.

Thank you so much for being here.

I know that you have just given me a copy of your book, Nursing the Wounds, Two Nurses, Extraordinary Story of Faith and Overcoming Sexual Abuse.

So this is going to be a heavy one for anyone listening.

Go ahead and put it on silent, put the earbuds in, read on closed captioning.

But I want to start with Tell me who you are today.

I know you're a mom, author, speaker, but underneath all of that, who would you say you are?

A survivor.

That feels good to say, doesn't it? It does.

It does.

So let's go back then.

Let's go back to the very beginning.

And tell me a little bit about the very first memories you have.

Did you ever have that peaceful, stable feeling at home? And what were those early years like for you?

So my early years were in a two-parent household.

I had both of my parents, and they were at home all the time.

My dad was retired.

He was 64 when I was born.

I feel like he had lived three different lives before he had me.

My mom was a stay-at-home mom, and so I had both parents at home.

I can remember happy times in my household.

That's good.

How did that change or evolve in your childhood to maybe things taking a more sinister turn?

I remember...

You know, there were things that happened that I thought were a part of my normal everyday that after a while I'd become so accustomed to and numb to in a way that I didn't really question them.