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Author Mary DeMuth helps others face family secrets Print Email
Written by Staff   
Wednesday, 11 February 2009 09:11 AM America/New_York
Marriage and family issues writer and novelist Mary DeMuth hasn't stopped at addressing the sometimes painful legacy of family secrets in fictional form in her forthcoming Daisy Chain (Zondervan, March 1).

The one-time missionary to France, now based in Texas, has launched a Web site, http://blog.myfamilysecrets.org/, where people are invited to post their own real-life family secrets as a step towards healing.

Early anonymous posters have written movingly about the pain of sexual abuse, financial troubles, affairs and drugs. DeMuth responds with a note of encouragement to each and plans to add a weekly testimony from those who have experienced healing as a result of facing long-avoided difficulties in their upbringing.

Her hope is that writing openly, even though they do not identify themselves, will encourage contributors to try to find someone with whom to talk through their difficulties.

“God heals us in many ways, but it is hard to get healing when you are walking in darkness,” she said, believing that the new Web site could be “the first little pinprick of light in the midst of darkness.”

DeMuth became a Christian as a teenager after a childhood that included rape and bereavement. She has authored five books, with three more titles following Daisy Chain in the next year.