But secrets seethed beneath the family’s respectable exterior. Jill was born in New Hampshire during the '60s, the daughter of a prominent, middle-class family with ties to the local school board. It is a lesson of redemption and courage, second chances and taking chances. Her story of brutal rape, of slavery, of dungeons, of '50 Shades of Grey' bondage gone horribly awry, was so dark and harrowing that one wondered how she had even survived, much less summoned the strength to stand before us.Īs I came to know her over the years, to enjoy her dry sense of humor, her keen intelligence, her blunt manner of speaking that forces you to take off every mask, I learned the other side of her story too. Standing behind a podium ironically flanked by crosses, the tall redhead delivered a presentation so spellbinding that the audience seemed to breathe and gasp in unison.
I met Jill Brenneman in 2011 at a conference for sex workers in Asheville, North Carolina.
