I believed the stories of family abuse! The bombshell relevations!

[zachira]

For many years, I have known this family. I was very fond of the parents especially the father. The parents were very well liked in the community.  After the parents died, all hell broke loose and two of the siblings are estranged. I thought that the parents had a loving marriage and that they were wonderful parents. Recently one of their children shared with me that the father was abusive and gave some examples of blatant abuses. It made me think of how popular so many of my more narcissistic disordered family members are and how so many people fall for their facades. Very few people believe my stories of how abusive certain family members have been to me and other family members. I believed what I was told about this family. I realize few people will believe that the father was abusive because it does not fit with their experiences of him including mine of being a kind loving family man. I was proud while sad to be able to listen and believe what I was being told about the father. So many siblings become estranged once the parents have passed away because the architects of hiding the dysfunctional abusive family dynamics are deceased. There are not many people we can share with about the abuses that happened mostly when only close family members were present and the abusers have maintained carefully crafted positive public images. I appreciate all the support I get on this site in sharing my stories of abuse while being believed and validated.

[Notwendy]

Yes, I believe it. There was an elderly woman in our community that we used to visit. I didn't ever see her children who lived out of state. I didn't ask, or judge.

Some people might assume that the adult children were horrible to not visit. Maybe they were, but maybe they had their reasons.

I knew it was possible for this woman to be lovely to visitors but different with her own children.

I am used to people not believing me so I rarely say much about my own experiences. It is nice that people here understand. I also think it's good that you listened to that person and didn't judge.