My childhood- trauma came back to haunt me

Over a year ago I couldn’t have imagined the call I was about to take. Little did I know, as I set up a new life in the city that everything was to come crashing down around me.

As I was on the number 17 Bus on my way home from work, I got a call from my favourite uncle, which wasn’t unusual as he always treated me like his own. I answered thinking that this was going to be yet another cheerful conversation about his boys or if i was settling in with my new flatmates, but I knew instantly from the sound of his voice something wasn’t right. “Are you alone?” he asked, preparing me for what I was about to hear. I wasn’t but i lied, desperate to know what was going on that made him sound so heartbroken. “So you know how you told me that ‘W’ made you uncomfortable, yeah...” he took long pauses after each sentence to ease me into the most horrifying thing to hear. “Well Madiha has said that it’s happened to her too and the police are investigating it.” I was in total shock, my uncle who had abused me over countless years as a child had now turned to his own daughter. I felt sick, I looked around the busy bus and tried to hide my tears, what sort of sick monster is he?

As I child I took years of abuse by my aunt’s partner whenever I would go to sleepovers and to play with my other cousins. It would happen in the middle of each night, just before he left for work, he would make his way into the bedroom. All I remember was that I was young enough to not know what was going on but knew enough to know I didn’t like it one bit.

No one knew of what happened to me other than when I was 15 I told my uncle (who I was on the call to) that W made me uncomfortable. At the time, my uncle wanted to do something about it but I was too scared to. Who would believe me? What would people say? I couldn’t let people know how broken I felt, so I did what I thought best at the time and swept all the pain under the carpet and tried to live my life.

It wasn’t until I was on the phone call that I heard the words, “It’s time for people to hear your side of the story...” that I knew, things were never going to be the same again.

I’m hoping to do this in sections as my story covers alot, If you’d rather it be one peice then please let me know.

My story may be not as ‘thrilling’ as other stories on this page, but I’d like to keep it raw and real. This is an ongoing battle for me but I know the topic of speaking out against sexual abuse is very close to my heart and needs to be heard by everyone.