for years and then one day at a store i was telling her about what happened to us, about the dead-end we reached when we realized “the system” had worked to protect C. not his past or future victims.

She told me she was a victim of sexual assault.  I was stunned that I had known her for years, she seems unflappable, and yet there was this terrible thing she had gone through.

I grieve for her.

You should know that “she” is a person who represents more women than I choose to count.  This is my private survivors day, the day I am dedicating to all the “ordinary” survivors of sexual assault.  They have the right to stay private, to keep their stories to themselves but when they look around at all the other people in the store they need to count every other five people.  At least sixty percent of the people I know have been the victims of some kind of assault.

I know these people’s stories because I told mine shamelessly.

Look around.