God's Call girl

[tortoise]

God's Call Girl is by Carla Van Raay.

It is a true story of a girl who grew up in Holland and later moved at the age of 12 to Australia with her parents. She was born in 1938 to Catholic parents.

Her father abused her when she as young as 3 and she eventually joined a convent aged 18. She expected to find understanding and compassion from her fellow nuns, but instead was driven to the verge of insanity.

She left the convent, had a hasty failed marriage and a child. With no qualifications or means of support she turned to prostitution.

Her story is of her life in war torn Holland and as she grew up.

Very sad in places and makes you wonder how people can inflict so much pain on each other.

[StoneHenge]

I haven't read a book like that in ages, but to be honest, I find them really upsetting. I remember a one off drama about a true story. A girl called Kerry, who was abused by her parents.

Some of you may have seen it. Both her parents used to make her do stuff to them. In one scene, it was her birthday and they brought her a pretty dress. They all had friends round, drinking and they asked her to show off her dress, which she did twirling around as a little girl would.

Then they, and their freinds all abused her. Eventually she realised, even at her young age, she didn't want to take anymore, so she too turned to prostitution in order to earn enough money to go to this refuge centre especially for abused kids. She earned the 500 she needed then went there.

At the end she just sat there in this place next to this woman and cried and cried. The credits after said that after two weeks there she was eventually able to tell them what went on. Her parents were arrested I think, and she made a life for herselfm, met someone nice etc.

It just makes you feel lucky when you've had what we consider to be a fairly normal upbringing knowing what pain some kids go through.

Makes you feel humbled.

[tortoise]

I remember that programme. Very upsetting.

There are alot of books out there at the moment about peoples life stories.

I think they are a good thing, as they encourage people to open up about their own experiences.

One book I read gave me the courage to tell Mr T what I went through at the hands of my Step Father. Before that I felt dirty and felt people would either judge me or feel sorry for me. It gave me the courage to speak up. Sadly it was too late to get anything done as he died before I had the courage to speak up.

[StoneHenge]

At least you were able to open up, which is half way to dealing with your feelings. I'm glad you were able to. I think it take courage to talk about something which at a young age, you would have blamed yourself for and just knowing it wasn't your fault would have made that issue easier to deal with.

Having a supportive mr t as well, I'm sure really help heal the wounds.