Judy Owens

The Secret Place is about the author unmasking in chronological order life events that almost succeeded in killing her faith, stealing her hope, and destroying her as a person via shame and embarrassment. Putting my life on print is going against everything I was taught about family secrets. My family has always lived by the following mission statement: ＂what happens in our house stays in our house.＂ The goal in keeping the family secrets were to not embarrass or make the family feel ashamed by letting people know who we are behind the mask. As an imperfect person coming from an imperfect family, I lived what I was taught for years.

There were times I understood from the deceitful hands of friends why the family mission statement was significant in protecting our family values. Yes, imperfect family can have values. Some people love to weaponize your flaws to help themself feel superior and to bring shame with embarrassment to the family.