When Laura was nine years old, her father drove off and did not return for four years, leaving her to raise her two younger sisters alone in the woods of Ontario.
For years, Peter's mother locked him in an attic every day of his childhood until she returned from work. He grew up without human contact and without learning to speak.
The Canadian government forcibly removed Danny from his parents' home and sent him to a boarding school, where he was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused and forced to reject his Indigenous culture and heritage.
Alana's father raped her repeatedly, beginning when she was four years old, and punished her if she did not pretend to enjoy it.
Madeline's mother was incapable of love and repeatedly called her a "monster." Her father was afraid of both her mother and stepmother and refused to protect Madeline from either.
Each of these was a patient of psychologist Catherine Gildiner. Gildiner's 2019 book "Good Morning, Monster" includes the stories of five people who suffered through a horrible childhood that left emotional scars well into their adult lives. But her narrative emphasizes their recovery from those scars and their journey to a more successful adulthood. She calls them "heroes" because of what they overcame.
Laura, Peter, Danny, Alana, and Madeline came from different backgrounds but shared some experiences. They suffered child abuse and neglect at the hands of adults who should have been protecting and caring for them. They lacked good role models, so they grew up without knowing how to behave, cope, or choose a good partner.
And they had the courage to survive, recover from unimaginable childhood trauma, and improve themselves.
Dr. Gildiner's therapy helped these recoveries, but Gildiner does not take the credit. Rather, she points out mistakes she made as a psychologist that sometimes threatened to derail the recovery process. In Madeline's case, she analyzed her own motivations for taking on the case.
Her book also humanizes the story's villains - those who tormented the five heroes when they were children. Many of them suffered their own abuses growing up, which affected the way they dealt with their children. One heroic action is that the five subjects were able to break this generational trauma, some of them raising children of their own.
"Good Morning, Monster" is a heartbreaking story of people experiencing abuse that no one should have to endure. I sometimes had trouble sleeping the night after reading about these horrific experiences. But it is also a story of hope and courage. Most of us have never experienced the nightmares of these heroes. But we can draw inspiration from their recovery.