|
Celesta and her sister, Karen, say they were molested as little girls. "He was a friend of my dad's and he married my mom's friend," Celesta says. "So we grew up with them and then he took advantage of the situation."
It was a secret the family kept for 25 years.
"There are families who keep these secrets, and relatives who keep these secrets, because they're afraid it will hurt someone's family and destroy the relationship and that's exactly what we've done," Karen says. "We've kept the silence to keep the relationship fine, and it's not fine."
Despite an alleged threat by the molester to kill their parents if they told anyone, Celesta and Karen exposed the family friend. They believed if they confided in their mother they would never have to see their molester again. But instead of going to the police, their mother, Ellen, struck a tragic deal with the man molesting her children. "I took the girls to a counselor. The counselor said, 'You know, really you have two choices,'" Ellen explains. "'You can have him arrested or you can see that he gets counseling,' which I thought I did. He didn't end up going continually to the counseling." Their own father, who knew what happened, remained close with the man, even continuing to bring the girls to the abuser's home.
After 25 years, Celesta, Karen and Ellen, finally took action. They decided to confront the man, captured in a documentary called Awful Normal.
Keep Reading
