Much has been made of the number of years between the incident in which Christine Blasey Ford said she was attacked and her report. Does anyone think that any number of years erases the memory of an attack?

I hesitated to write this letter because I am revealing the hardest parts of my life to strangers. If I can influence anyone into understanding why a girl or a woman does not report, I will have achieved my goal.

I have endured a lifetime of sexual assault that began at the age of 4. At the age of 4, I didn’t report because I didn’t have the words to explain or understand what had happened. As a woman, I learned that people do not believe you anyway, because there is no “proof.”

Just look at the way Dr. Ford’s sharing of her experience is being received by the men in power. I am now 67 years old, and the damage done to me has literally changed my brain, changing who I could have been. I am making peace with the past and all the errors in judgment I have made. I am determined that my last years will be jolly and predator-free.

Dr. Ford has moved on with her life and has worked very hard to be strong enough to choose the hard course she has taken. She is coming forward because the character of a potential Supreme Court justice is questionable; a thorough investigation is imperative.

Jennifer Willard

Yarmouth

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