donald, my thanks for your amazing letter. I am assuming you know she was my mother.
the benefits of her column will never be known, but there are countless people, like you, who had a light bulb turned on by her work. she really was a great girl.
Margo Howard (Dear Prudence)
Dear Prudence
Recently I was asked, what's the best advice Ann Landers ever gave me. Here's my response.
Eppie Lederer was much more than a diminutive lady who dictated advice to the lovelorn from her penthouse suite. Just one of her columns changed my life
In 1978, my grade eleven teacher told our class we should read the newspaper daily. Immediately I ordered a newspaper subscription and read Landers column religiously. One day, a letter appeared from a woman who had been molested as a child. Miss Landers responded that incest is a crime and that her abuser should be reported to the police.
Immediately, I was propelled outside the inner sphere of my small universe. My computer registered this information in a big way and I couldnt handle the implications. Sexual abuse was a crimesuch a foreign concept to me. More than thirty people knew of my own experience of abuse. Did they know it was a crime? If so, why didnt they tell me?
One fifty-worded answer provided the spark that ignited a young mans quest for justice. And in my memoir, Father's Touch, I describe the important role that message played in the direction my life would take.
Ann Landers taught education and awareness empowers victims and weakens predators. My story proves she was right.
Donald D'Haene
1007-560 Proudfoot Lane,
London, Ontario, Canadad
N6H 5C9
www.fatherstouch.com author web site
Edited by - morrisamb on 14 July 2002 22:1:22