from Vicki Hall at the Calgary Sun,
The Todd Holt story, in many ways, is made for Hollywood.
A young hockey star ends up playing for a sexual predator. He drinks to the point of destruction. His life is spent numbing the pain in any way possible until, one day, he finally tells the world what happened, which leads to criminal charges against his tormentor.
In the Hollywood version, he lives happily ever.
But reality for survivors of sexual abuse often fails to follow such a romantic story arc. The collateral damage inflicted by the likes of Graham James spans generations, and the healing journey follows no set timetable.
But as Holt arrives in Swift Current, he’s more at peace than he has been in a long time.
“I used to look at Swift Current as a place with ghosts, a scary place,” he says. “But now it’s my second home. I gave 20 years of my life to the whole abuse situation. If I would have missed this opportunity, this experience, it would have been devastating all over again.”
By the time Holt arrived in Swift Current in 1989, Graham James had long since mastered the art of grooming victims for his abuse.
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