“We never talked about sex. We never could swear. It was a totally moral,
Christian home.” Except, Donald D’Haene adds. Except for one thing. “It was called
The Game.”
While most childhood pastimes are fun, frequently rambunctious, and
often just plain out of control, this game was different.
It was horrific. It was hidden. It was the quiet, continuing
childhood sexual abuse of four Elgin children for many years by their
father. “It was our little secret.”
The Game ended when Donald, 15, and his brother, 18, took their mother,
their sister and younger brother, and some belongings packed in green garbage
bags, and fled their house.
And Donald, who grew up in Elgin a victim but who now lives in London
as a survivor, has written a book. It is Father’s Touch: A Survivor’s
Memoir of Sexual Abuse and Faith, and it is to be published next winter
by a division of American Book Publishing. It is, Donald hopes, a cautionary tale.
Chapter One has been posted to a Web site. Just as all journeys
begin with a first step, Chapter One of Father’s Touch is a trip back by
Donald to East Elgin, his first since his escape. It is not a trip
back home, he is quick to point out. Because none of the houses in which
he lived until age 16 — none of the 14 houses — was a home. And the
trip is not an easy experience, even in the car in the company of his partner,
Maurice. As they leave one of the houses, Donald remembers his pets.
And his father asking if he wants a new rabbit. And a young boy wondering
if another is worth the price he has to pay. “As we travel down the
country road, the house on the hill recedes in my memory and with it, I
pray, any trace of my father,” he writes. “I glance in the sideview
mirror. Reading the small print leaves me cold: Objects are closer than
they appear.”
Unsettling. And cinematic. Indeed, Donald is working with a screenwriter
on a treatment. Objects are closer . . . in fact, the past is as
close to Donald today as it ever has been, 20 years [later]...
But who would have suspected that, in those days, of the D’Haenes? Look
at their pictures on the Web site. Such a normal family, even if they don’t
smile . . . even if father has young Donald firmly in his grasp.
“That’s just the point.”
Counselling has enabled Donald to reassemble the two Donalds of his
life into one person; the boy who was abused but who lived only in a forgotten
darkness, and the man who survived.
And he says, “I’m not bitter.
“I think people need to know that if you’re looking for justice, that
isn’t necessarily going to happen. It certainly didn’t happen in our case.”
But if not justice, what then?
“Take control of your destiny.”
Today, Donald D’Haene is 40, a writer, a columnist with Scene,
London’s alternative biweekly, and happy with his Maurice, who is executive
director of a social service agency.
Unlike some of his contemporaries, Donald can say, “I’m having
the best time of my life at 40.”
And he does.
“I love how my life is. I’m happy with my friends, and my family, and
my career.”
Indeed, he is more than a survivor. He is a man in control of
his destiny.
People appears Monday and Friday in this space. The Peopleline
is 519-631-2790
