I don’t profess to have answers to every situation in life, but yet I believe I can touch on a subject that many of us have thought about.

Some situations leave such a path of destruction, that it is not easy to walk away and not acknowledge the storm that had occurred or to forget about the broken pieces of peoples lives that lay shattered because of the thoughtless acts of a few.

I agree with many of the points that Keith Porter and Jody Johnson (not myself, but another writer who wrote in) had made and I can understand why they and many others continue to speak out on this situation that happened at the Good Samaritan Society.

I struggle greatly when trying to understand why this had to happen to these beautiful elderly people. Some of the main thoughts that come to mind are based on trying to understand the mind frame of an abuser in situations like this.Whether it is child abuse, elder abuse and neglect or sexual abuse, they all seem to have some of the same elements. The abusers seem to place themselves on a higher level than their victims, and they devalue the victims to the point that they see no worth in them. So to hurt, neglect or humiliate them brings no more remorse than if they would have stepped on a bug.

The families of these victims have to live with the thought that someone they love very much, that God loves very much, was devalued, hurt and humiliated at the hands of someone who didn’t realize or acknowledge the worth and value of these victims, and I can say from personal experience that it is enough pain to last a lifetime. It does not easily dissipate over time, and time does not fully heal all wounds. Little Band-Aids of attempts at justice doesn’t stop the hemorrhage that flows into the lives of victims and families of victims of abuse and neglect.

Families put their valued loved ones in the hands of people they think they can trust and when abuse and neglect occur, they have to live with that betrayal for the rest of their lives. It is the families that actually end up serving the sentence of remorse and heartache that the ones who abuse and neglect should be serving. The pain the victims feel goes even deeper which makes their life sentence even more unjust. Attempts at justice are aborted until the abusers or neglectful ones have the ability and remorse to actually feel the pain they have caused the victims and their families. Only then can true healing begin for both sides.

My heart and prayers go out to the victims and families of this situation and also to the many families and victims whose perpetrator’s acts of abuse and neglect were never acknowledged and brought to justice.

Jody (Dahl) Johnson

Albert Lea