For years he was terrorised, abused and neglected by his father. Aid agencies and people in his environment saw it, but did not intervene. Marco Strijker (26) from Ruinen gathered the courage to write down his past, that of his mother and brother Frank in the book No one looking back.
It was not easy for Strijker. He describes the four years in which he wrote down his experiences in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata as ‘quite a labor’. “Your brain is constantly working overtime because you collect so much.” Sometimes sleep was not possible because the horrible memories came up again.
“Very heavy at times,” Strijker continues about the process he went through. His father’s violence started from birth. After six months, his mother fled, took her two children with her and entered a shelter in the hope of finding a safe home.
“My grandmother came to the door once,” says Strijker about the reason for the departure. “That time came too soon, because my father stood with a raised hand above my mother.” This is how the misconduct came to light.
Watch the full conversation with Strijker here in the Radio Drenthe program Cassata: