Too Scared to Tell till Now

Her abusive father and controlling mother hampered Tricia Cook but did not prevent her from accomplishing a lot in life. A stressful childhood in Yorkshire, with bombing, rationing and often being shut up in a cupboard, was followed by nursing school, marriage and children.Then came emigration surviving the cold of northern Canada before moving to the Vancouver area, where she worked in extended health care. When her back gave out, she experienced the fate of a disabled worker. Forced to retire, she took courses and volunteered for decades in hospice and arthritis care, ultimately becoming a counsellor. After group psychology and finding out her younger sister had also been abused, she knew she had to warn others to speak up.