So Nobody Will Know

If Joanne Johnson wore a T-shirt, the front would read, ‘I am a survivor …’

The back would say, ‘… and you can be too’.

Her mum was a hard woman, but Joanne loved her dad. However, this love was destroyed when she became a victim of incest at a young age. “I’ll be careful, so nobody will know,” her dad told her as she quivered beneath him, in the dirt. Thus began the conspiracy of silence that sentenced Joanne to a life of isolation within her family. Sssh…

In this frank and moving account of her life, Joanne tells of the struggles of living in a family that at first ignored and then refused to accept the truth. To escape her loneliness, and the assaults, she found solace in music – and her only friend, Karly Bear.

So Nobody Will Know is Joanne’s journey of discovery as she reclaims her fractured life. It tells how she acknowledged the damage of her childhood, the effects of which rippled through her life; of undertaking counselling to conquer her ghosts; and of finding the courage to confront the absence of duty of care by the doctors and police involved in the reporting of her case all those years ago.

In this story of courage, hope and faith, Joanne, a survivor of incest and neglect, provides a roadmap to healing.

It is a story that will offer inspiration to those travelling the same path.