Lydia Wakefield Hubbard lives at the Marshall Manor in NW Portland, but she is eager to travel and to speak. She is only 80 years old after all and has an important message to share.
Her message is that if we don’t talk about abuse, it continues. If we don’t talk about abuse, we can’t heal.
Lydia was chronically sexually abused for by her father. He began abusing her at age four by taking her for a drive in his car. He told her to never tell anyone what happened. The next day she experienced pain and told her mother that she hurt in her “privates”. Her mother examined her and called for help. Her father blamed a distant relative. The police came and started searching for the accused family member. No one asked Lydia who had abused her, and she did not tell because her father told her not to. Her father also abused the girl hired to help her mother around the house, but another victim did not stop Lydia’s father from continuing to abuse her. He even abused her as her mother lay dying in the hospital. And the abuse continued after he married another woman. It was not until Lydia was 17 did she gain the courage to stand up to her father and stop the abuse.
After that, Lydia married, gave birth to and raised five children, became a nurse’s aid, a Practical Nurse and then a Registered Nurse. For many years she never told a soul about what her father had done to her.
Finally, she suffered a nervous breakdown in her forties and began to share her story in private. Many years passed before she shared it in public. These last dozen years she has shared her story before many audiences. She wrote a poem, a book, and a screenplay based on the book, all three named Feet Running and Bare, about her childhood and how she came forward as an adult and started speaking and how she found comfort and healing in Judaism. Unfortunately, as time passed, travel and advocacy became more difficult for Lydia. Some people took advantage of her fragility and naiveté. She found help from Louise Bauschard, a pioneer in the domestic violence movement who helps transport her to and from speaking engagements and often visits her.
If you want to hear Lydia’s story, please contact Louise Bauschard at Voices Set Free by e-mail: louisebauschard@gmail.com.
You can purchase Lydia’s book by contacting Louise Bauschard at: louisebauschard@gmail.com.
Virginia Jones founded Compassionate Gathering, to give survivors safe places to share their stories in private and in public. If you want to share your story in private, on You Tube or in writing contact Virginia at compassion 500@gmail.com or 503-866-6163.
No comments:
Post a Comment