Seeing the Positive

not sure what the main point is in this one, but it was published in the yated, from a survivor.

I would like to address the sensitive topic that has been discussed the past few weeks, as my experience has been very different than the general concencus.

I, too, was hurt by an older person whom i trusted. It hurt. My father zt"l always told me when i was growing up that life was hard. He used to take me to the hospital to visit people who were ill. He took me every friday to help prepare food for people who didn't have any. He would tell us about tragedies in people's lives, and we would say Tehillim together. He used to say, "Life is hard, but as long as you put on tefillin each morning, life is fun."

I think my father inoculated me from getting too down in life. Who am i to withdraw from society because I got hurt, when everyone around me has their own problems?

I've been married now for ten years and have five children, boruch Hashem. I can still feel the pangs of pain of a little bewildered kid inside me, but it is overwhelmed by the feelings of gratitude I feel to my father zt"l.

Name Withheld