Ask Amy: Severed sister relationship lasts 60 years
Dear Amy: Two sisters in our extended family have a broken relationship.
When they were young their parents brought foster children into the home.
The eldest foster child was a boy in his early teens. He began sexually assaulting the younger sister, who was eight.
The abuse continued for at least four years. No one in the family was aware of it. The young sister was threatened not to tell anyone.
Fast-forward 20 years. The abuse was revealed, and the older sister said that everyone needed to forgive the predator. She opted to keep him in her life, like a brother.
The victim no longer trusted her sister, and their relationship was never the same.
Now the older sister feels rejected by the family because of her continued support of the predator.
She still feels that forgiveness of the predator was the best course, and she can’t grasp the depth of her younger sister’s hurt.
Sixty years have passed, and the entire family is still clouded by this disloyalty.
The older sister feels like she’s the victim, due to the palpable rejection she feels from everyone else in the family.
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