Touched - Softcover

Touched deals with real issues that families around the world face, i.e. domestic violence, child molestation and racism. The book offers hope for the victims and encourages them to tell of their situation. A secret can no longer harm you once it is no longer a secret. The book encourages forgiveness and offers hope. Matthew Allen Green was molested by his stepfather. The stepfather told him never to tell anyone and Mat didn't and would not have even if he had not been warned. The shame and humiliation caused him to close off his heart and to stop caring about anyone but himself. He knew his mother would not believe him for his stepfather had pulled the family back from almost living on the street after Mat's father died. Mat felt there was no one he could have turned too and when the abuse stopped just as suddenly as it had started, Mat didn't ask any questions and didn't care why. But he should have. Mat left home and never looked back. He went to medical school and has been a doctor five days. Mat's sister Christina, like Mat, also knew they could not turn to anyone. Their stepfather, Wayne, was rich and powerful and in a small town, a man like that could make you or break you. Chris was ten years older than Mat and she had always been the one to take care of him in their father's absence. This time would be no different. Chris was smart enough to know that she could not support the two of them if they ran away and knowing they would end up on the street with no one to help or believe if she told, she did the only thing she could. The next time Wayne approached Mat's door, she interceded, saving Mat with her body. Day five as a doctor, Mat bitterly accepts his first night of call. He is angry and really hated being in his residence program. Truth be told, he hated everything. Until he meets Grandma, as Ruthie Mae Morris liked to be called. Ruthie Mae was brought into the ICU and into Mat's care by design. She tells him that she was actually sent to save him and give him a home like the one he had when his father was alive but to receive what she was offering, he had to let her touch his heart. Mat tells Grandma she has nothing he wants. "That hurts." She said "Since to save you, I must die." Grandma has to reach Mat and she doesn't have much time to do it. Once Mat accepts the challenge, Grandma takes Mat twenty year back in the past. She uses an unorthodox method that shocks and dismays Mat. She even proves to him that she is telling the truth by letting him talk to his dad, by letting him see the day Chris stepped in to help him and Grandma lets him see what becomes of Chris since he left home. All the while Grandma's heart rate gets slower and slower with each beat. To help Mat make up his mind, she tells him that if he wins, he can take Chris with him to his new home and he does.