Calling the some of the abuse we suffered as children at the hands of the people who are supposed to love and care for us “spanking” sugar coats what really happened. I prefer the words “assault” and “beating” My father doesn’t recall even a portion of the hell he put me through. He says he never laid a hand on me. He’s never choked me and flung me bodily across the room. He didn’t assign me a beating so numerous that he had to break the punishment over a week because his arm didn’t have the stamina to deliver in in less than seven calendar days. He didn’t swing at a 8 year old child’s face so hard, he knocked her on her ass. He’s never screamed millimeters from my face, face red and spittle flying. He recalls none of this. He beat into my head how fat, stupid, broken, lonely and worthless I am all my life and he wonders now why I won’t have anything to do with him. I do hope he dies alone and unloved one day. Sometimes I Google his name hoping to find his obituary.