To be honest, I felt (and still do feel) let down by my parents. I didn't tell them as such, my dad guessed there was something wrong after the last time my grandfather abused me. So I then told him. He obviously told my mum, and then my grandparents what I had said. My dad was very angry and my mum upset, but all they said to my grandfather was that if he ever did anything like that to anyone else they would tell the whole family (obviously he was abusing my sister and cousin at that time, but my parents didn't know)
My parents still allowed him to visit the house and my mother didn't once say anything to me about what had happened. Therefore I felt as though they didn't believe me.
I found out about my cousin when she wrote a letter to my sister about what had happened to her. My sister (without telling me about herself) showed me the letter and I responded to my cousin. She was 18 at the time and I felt she needed support. I then discovered my sister had suffered and my cousin had involved the police.
I'm glad she did, but I don't think I would have been brave enough to do it myself. My grandfather psychologically abused me too and I was terrified of what he would do to me and my son.
I often wonder if I would be the same person had this not happened to me. I feel as if I haven't had the opportunity to be who I should be, my childhood was taken away from me. I am quite suspicious of people until I know them, especially elderly men.
I do like to think that my children would tell me if anything like this happened to them...I have a far closer relationship with my children than the one I had with my parents. My mother wasn't a great parent and my father allowed her to psychologically abuse us as children in her own way. But I kind of see why she was like she was with a father like that!
I know because of this I strive to be as unlike my mother as possible. My children will and have had a happy childhood.