Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2601

Tonight's special guest is Susan Glandon from Owens Crossroads, Alabama, who came from a mostly loving family, but was abused by her step-father from about 3 or 4 years old, just after as he married her mother. "The abuse lasted my entire childhood," she says. "The sexual abuse abated physically, when I was about twelve or thirteen, but the physical, mental, and predatory abuse continued until I told my grandmother. My age was then 21, and I was suffering from severe PTSD." She wrote a book about her abuse entitled 'Eighteen Years: Childhood with a Sex Predator'. "I have always counselled and cheered people on," Susan continues. "I escaped my abuser every chance I got. Even as a child, I would leave the house, to play, early in the mornings, and not return until late. I was pregnant and married, by the time I turned eighteen. Leaving the house for the first time. I disconnected, or fought the abuse, and there were no feelings attached, as I had no idea what to think. Only to do my best to get through it." She further explains, "I am a sociology minor, loved psychology, read all I can get my hands on, and have made it my mission to literally feed street people, support foodbanks, etc. I get the feeling that homelessness happens after abuse happens. My main insight is that this could have been prevented if my aunt would have spoken up. She was his sister. He abused her, and we have to get rid of the cloak of silence that protects abusers, not victims. He kept me quiet, as well, in childhood, but certainly not in adulthood."