Alison I'm not sure what to say, except that I will be forever moved by this story.

I recently read a book that troubled me right through. The writer, in hindsight, was pretty brilliant...taking me on a could this be journey, then leaving things dangling, and then at the end of the book, in the fewest of words, he assured me that my suspicions were correct, that the doctor father was interfering with his daughter.

In so many ways, so many years later, I am still that over-protected Catholic school girl who really has no damned idea about all that goes on in the world. I know. Of course I know, but the blinkers are on for the most part, and I like to pretend that the world is nicer than perhaps it is.

It's probably safe to presume that D is no longer with us, and it's easy to say you failed the final test, but yours wasn't a test of friendship. You gave her all of that and more, but what you couldn't do was paper over the cracks of abuse that preceded your getting together, before she believed that she was damned anyway....

Thank you for such an honest piece of writing. I am forever changed. :)