Synopses & Reviews
More than thirty years after the conviction of her father for sexual abuse, author Sherrie Watkins shares a heartbreaking and harrowing account of the abuse inflicted upon her during the sixteen years of her childhood. In this memoir, she provides intimate details of what it was like being raised by someone who had more than discipline in mind.
Watkins' story begins in 1968. Eight years old, she lived with her parents Ronald and Beverly and her three sisters in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In Touching Temptation, Watkins reveals the details of her father's brutal personality and his sexual abusiveness beginning with her first memory. This memoir discusses her fears and anxieties as she struggles to protect herself and her sisters from her father's advances.
Offering a unique perspective on issues of familial abuse and neglect, Touching Temptation follows Watkins as she finds the courage to leave home, contact authorities, and press charges against her father. It's a story of overcoming shame and fear to learn to live and love.
Synopsis
On a warm summer day in 1968, when I was seven years old, I witnessed my parents fighting. Moments later, I watched in horror as my father threw my mother out of the house, leaving me with him. I was left at the mercy of a man that had become ruthless, mean, aggressive and abusive. He made the rules and his rules were the law and he wanted them followed to the letter-no matter the cost. Later that night, my mother returned in hopes of taking me with her, only to have a gun shoved in her face and forced to leave again-changing my life forever. With the trust and love of a horse, ten years later, I learned to love again.