Crossing Over Boundaries: A Journey of Child Abuse, Destruction, Recovery, and Self-Discovery

Standout Drill Team member, tall and tan high-school senior Debra had a life to be envied. Living in a suburban house on a tree-lined street in sunny Southern California, by all observations, she was the American ideal and on her way to live-out the American dream. But every day, Debra’s horrid little secret, became harder and harder to keep buried.

Debra always thought she was a good person, but what was happening to her in her own home, wasn’t good. Somewhere inside she felt it must mean she was bad and that she was being punished, or that she would have to take the punishment to save her brothers.

In this country an estimated one out of every four women (and one out of every six men) is sexually abused as a child. Six out of ten times, the abuser is a male family member or friend of the family. Victims of sex-abuse experience higher than average rates of depression, suicide, promiscuousness, sexual disorders, low self-esteem and addiction. They have trouble saying, “no” and habitually fall into patterns of unhealthy behavior.

This memoir tells a story about a young girl victimized by her own father from the age of six. Debra shares her story honestly and unashamedly, finally able to recount fifteen years of molestation and humiliation. This is the ugly, unwashed truth of a woman who went from a sixth-grader on her way to success and happiness to a homeless, delusional crystal meth-addicted, alcoholic on a fast track to the cemetery.

The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. She had to get help or die with an ugly secret.