Reunion Online

How can any of us ever forget the images of trauma and pain that the media carried to us from Newtown, Connecticut last holiday season? We coped and mourned, wondered how a person survives this type of loss. We struggled to understand. We held our children ever-closer. For some, we felt a mix of gratitude to be safely with our families and stinging guilt that we were okay when others were is such deep, abiding pain.

The season premiere of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is fast approaching and many are waiting in anticipation to find out what happens to Detective Olivia Benson. For some, witnessing the ordeal she endures could be painful, as it can be an all too-real depiction of a personal experience.

I am currently 27 years old; I’ve been married for 3 years and have been in steady career for 5 years. It has been almost a decade since my childhood abuses came to the light and were thoroughly dealt with.

We’ve all been reminded this week of the solace we found eleven years ago in the communal sense of shock and the shared resolve to heal from the horrible losses we experienced on September 11. No doubt, scars still remain. But together, we faced down our fear, we shored one another up against our new-found sense of vulnerability and shook off the stunning betrayal of our belief that we were safe from attack.