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.