The skepticism of MacKenzie's story, as evidenced on this thread, let alone by family members, is one of the main reasons victims of this type of abuse don't come forward with it, right?
I personally have known two different women who were sexually abused by their own father. In both cases the father was already dead when the friend shared the information with me.
In one case, the woman was a relative-by-marriage. I had known the father and considered him to be an a$$hole, but had no idea anything like this was going on. He was an alcoholic and eventually committed suicide. This woman told me that her mother knew what was going on at the time. That whn she began to get her periods her mother said to her father "You better stop this, you'll get her pregnant!" And I knew the mother also. I had a hard time dealing with the idea that the mother knew, but I had no reason to disbelieve the young woman's story. I have since learned that there are many cases where victims claim the mother knew what was going on and was unable to stop it but did not, for whatever reason, leave the father.
In the second case, it was an adoptive father - not that that makes any difference. She was adopted as an infant. Father sexually abused her throughout childhood. She grew up. Many, many years later she said that one night she visited her father (mother was dead by now) and the two of them got "very drunk" and she "passed out" and later awoke with dad naked in bed beside her!
So I guess these old perverts don't change over the years.
I wish MacKenzie the best in dealing with her life from here on. She is still a relatively young woman and it sounds like she is on the right track towards healing herself.
