Prologue of an abuse survivor story
This True Story is…credible. Life lived on a Precipice of DEATH!
By Sheila Renee | Edited by Pat H.
My daddy took my hand and led me to a wooded area. I asked him, “Why are we here?”
My drunken father responded by putting his strong hands on each side of my throat and strangling me. I blacked out. I was going to die. Right before I stopped breathing I came back to life.
I was safe.
Then, he said to me, “You will do as I say. If you don’t I will kill you and your mother, too. Do you understand?”
I nodded meekly.
He removed my clothes and played with my body until he was satisfied. Then, he walked back to the car and waited for me. I got inside and we drove home. As ashamed and afraid as I was I believed I had done something good.
I had saved my mother’s life.
I was six years-old.
An abuse survivor story always involves sex, death and other people. Sometimes, bad luck. But those who survive are those with the stories now. Whether it’s the Holocaust or a simple American family.
Chapter 1 – The sweet girl
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faerie, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”
My name is Sheila Renee. My story is my life as a little girl who believed the world and all the people in it were kind and good and wonderful. As a sensitive child I was not prepared for the reality of life, beginning in my own home.
But, I learned to take every hit and hit back. This is not a tale of desperation and devastation it is a challenge to all of you out there who need to be reminded that you can overcome any adversity in the end and live happily ever after, not in the fairy tale sense, but in the real world one.
Yes, I am a survivor of abuse, both in my home growing up and in my marriages. There is no question that I have been to emotional and physical hell and back. I shouldn’t even be here writing to you.
Truth be told, there are a lot of women who have experienced what I went through. Many men have also been abused, as well.
Mine is a life of perseverance, adjusting my choices, making courageous decisions and believing that I was the opposite of what my abusers were telling me.
I want to bring forth the value of the human experience and the significance we all possess no matter who tells us differently.
Sadly, I have to detail some pretty rough treatment here to explain the ways to resolve them and keep my essence intact. There are no guarantees in life; just the promises that there are solutions for the problems.
This accounting is not about a complaining, victimized woman. There is no glory in that. My life is a testimony to my evolution from a determined girl and women to survive to finally understanding and applying the unlimited grace of God who was always there for me and never let me give up on myself, even though I didn’t care for the longest time whether He cared or not.
This is a book of reality, bad choices, grit and praise. Together, we will laugh and cry and be grateful for a life that emerged as gold is refined by fire.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
