Thankfully, Tadhg and Shannon didn’t seem to understand the way in which our father was hurting our mother. I, on the other hand, had been ten years old when I learned the meaning of the word rape. It wasn't the first time I'd seen him force her down, nor was it the first time I’d heard the word tossed around in conversation, but it was the first time that I managed to connect the word to the action and make sense of what had been happening to my mother.
