title: A Father's Healing Touch: Restoring Your Family After a Tragedy
author:  D.J. Young 
description: D.J. Young grew up in Aberdeen, South Dakota. After serving in the U.S. Navy, and attending seminary, he earned a B.S. in Sociology from Carroll College in Helena, Montana, and did graduate studies in Special Education. After a season of pastoring, D.J. was a christian school teacher and principal for over twenty years, and directed three recent Oregon Christian Writers' summer coaching writers conferences. D.J. is a full-time writer and conference speaker with a passion for encouraging men in their God-given role as "Dad". He and his wife Kathy have been married over forty years, and are the proud parents of five adult children and grandparents of six.
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  > Thank you to my mental illness. Without it, my mind wouldn't come up with
  > the sick and twisted shit it does!  
  >  
  > Thank you to my readers, my friends and my family. You guys keep me going!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Warning: This is not a Romance. It has many triggers, including rape, assault,
  abuse, bullying and murder. Do not read if you are sensitive to these issues.
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
    
  
  They never expected me to fight back!
  
    
  
    
  
  Prologue
  
  Mitchell (age 7)
  
  I sat on the front steps of our new house, while the removalists passed me
  with the furniture that had been haphazardly chucked into the back of a truck
  the night before. My mum directed the men inside the house that felt empty. My
  best friend wasn’t around anymore. Dead, and buried in the ground. Nothing
  left other than a gravestone and some plastic flowers. My dad was rotting in a
  jail cell for my little brother’s murder. I fingered the scar that ran over my
  right eye and down my cheek. Doctors said I had been lucky th