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Olga Brand's avatar

Hugs. You are extraordinary in every way. ❤️

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Jen Gilman Porat's avatar

It’s interesting to read your post about how smart people can err in the grandest of ways, because even as I strive to make sense of this “new” material, I am aware of all the ways I am still constructing a narrative to tie it all together.

I am building Russian nesting dolls, my friend. Trying to contain sensory memories, implicit knowledge, dissociated fragments.

How I wish for a conversation with the plaintiff. Would it help? Would it harm? Maybe both. Help and harm for the both of us.

But where are the other victims?

I am trying to stifle an enormous urge to go back to the school itself. And where’s the time capsule? I want it.

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Jen Gilman Porat's avatar

Thank you 🙏🏻

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Karen Maloy's avatar

Your writing is full of power and healing and questions that feel resonant and have implications far beyond your own healing. You are saving your child self and saving other children in the process. Interrogating our own narratives in the context of felt memory is where the truth emerges - so many survivors do not have a way to process their own trauma and you are so brave, so generous, to bring this process out into the world and make yourself so vulnerable. Thank you.

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Jen Gilman Porat's avatar

Likewise, my friend ❤️🙏🏻❤️

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Marie McMahon's avatar

Very powerful. So sorry you had to endure all that. Wishing you healing and peace. ❤️

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Jen Gilman Porat's avatar

Thank you 🙏🏻

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Kathy MacKay's avatar

Jen, your writing is so clear and powerful. This is all so horrific—the multiple perpetrators, the trauma then and now. It sounds like you are getting to the other side of figuring it all out. Just today I was reading Amy Griffith’s memoir, THE TELL, where she described her experience as those memories surfaced—allowing her to turned the corner toward healing. May you find that peace soon. It’s good to know you have a loving husband who is there for you. ❤️

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Jen Gilman Porat's avatar

Thanks, Kathy. I’m about to start reading that memoir.

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Jen Riddell's avatar

Incredible writing, Jen- and every brave word you publish is seizing something back that was taken. I am so sorry, Jen.

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Jen Gilman Porat's avatar

Thank you, Jen

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