One Second at a Time: My Story of Pain and Reclamation

Diane Morrisseau, a victim of bullying and abuse at Fort Alexander Indian Residential day school, fought back and left school at fifteen. Despite her strength, she married her abuser, Edgar Olson, and endured eighteen years of violence. Despite the systems of colonialism that failed to protect her, Diane found the strength to survive, reclaim her life, and thrive. Today, she counsels women, children, and men experiencing similar difficulties.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 198 pages
Publication date: 24 May 2024
Publisher: University of British Columbia Press

Diane Morrisseau, a victim of bullying and abuse at the Fort Alexander Indian Residential day school, bravely fought back and left school at the age of fifteen. Despite her strength, a childhood of trauma and abuse led her into the arms of Edgar Olson, and by sixteen, the young Ojibway-Anishinabe woman had given birth to her first child and married the man who would become her tormentor for the next eighteen years. Notoriously violent, her abuser was aided and abetted by the systems of colonialism that failed to protect Diane during her childhood. Edgar was able to keep Diane and her children trapped in a cycle of violence for years, without being held accountable by law or society. What could have been a chronicle of unrelenting hardship instead becomes a narrative of how, in horrific circumstances, Diane found the strength to survive, reclaim her life, and eventually thrive. Today, she draws meaning from her painful past, counseling women, children, and men experiencing similarly difficult circumstances.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780774880978