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By Jonah A. Thorne III, author of To the Man I Called Father I see stories and posts every day about estrangement — parents, mostly mothers, venting online about how awfully their children have treated them, children who no longer speak to them. Many of these posts, and the groups they live in, focus on what the parents feel they are owed, or how ungrateful their children are for treating them this way. I understand them, to a degree. I understand their pain — their deep sens

By Jonah A. Thorne III, author of To the Man I Called Father When you’re facing any type of injustice, you can’t help but picture what real justice would look like. You play the scene out in your mind — every wrong named, every harm counted, your child finally seen and believed. Then reality arrives, and you realize how naïve you were about the justice system. I’m not a lawyer. I’m a parent who spent years inside this system fighting for my child. What follows is what no one

Not having ever been involved in the legal system beyond a couple of traffic tickets, my expectations were based to a degree on what I had seen on TV courtroom dramas. For a parent dealing with the sexual abuse of their child, the reality of the legal system is quite sobering. Even though my daughter had been abused for years, since she was 12, because discovery happened after her 16th birthday, state prosecutors limited their contact with us and spoke directly to our daughte

By Jonah A. Thorne III, author of To the Man I Called Father Understanding the Silence When I was struggling through the aftermath of my daughter being abused by my own father, I realized something important. Most of the resources available were aimed at the victims or their mothers. This focus made sense, as men are more often the abusers. However, for non-offending fathers like me, there was little consideration or support. I found a few generic books recommended by therapi

In one of the chapters in my book, "To the Man I Called Father," I touch on the dog that saved my life. I should have written about the other dogs that made such a difference for the rest of my family. My son had a big black doodle that visited him in the hospital every few days while he recovered from TEN — toxic epidermal necrolysis. My daughter had multiple dogs in her corner through her recovery and the PTSD from what my father had done — a Goldendoodle and a Golden Retri

I saw a post about fathers and sons today. Being a son who truly adored his father and a father who loves his son—it’s the kind of post that touches a nerve. I spoke to my father every day for over 25 years of my adult life—sometimes twice. I was so proud to call him my father. I talked about him constantly. I told my father-son stories to everyone. I knew the best parts of me came from him. The worst day in my life was the day I realized the man I adored, honored, and respec

This block of text below is just one of the content warnings in my book, To the Man I Called Father. The following chapter contains the most explicit material in the book. It reproduces, in the perpetrator's own words as recorded by the child victim, the language used during repeated acts of sexual abuse, including sexual coercion, threats, and references to assault and bleeding. It also references suicide — both the victim's later thoughts of ending her life and the perpetr

"...it's been blank for seven years and ten days—since the discovery—since the day my world was upended." "I still remember the last words I spoke to you, as your son. What you did hurt me more deeply than I can ever fully express. It took a long time for me to heal enough to feel like myself again, especially in the eyes of my wife and children. You were the greatest loss I have ever known. For years, the anger and grief made it hard to be as present for them as I should hav

If you're here, you have found your way to my story. It was not an easy one to tell, and it may not be an easy one to read. I spent years in a space that made telling my own story very difficult — and years more trying to reclaim it. My name is Jonah A. Thorne III — or rather, it's the name I write under, which is a story of its own and one I'll get to. For now, welcome to my blog, and thank you for becoming a part of my journey. I am the author of To the Man I Called Father,

I want to thank everyone at Thursday Media Group for helping me to make this happen. I had approached several publishers over the last year, and was very fortunate to meet Danny at just the right moment for both of us. Good luck with Thursday Media Group and all of your endeavors. And thank you again for helping to make this a reality.