After I gave my first talk ever on February 12, 2020, I was overwhelmed with emails, facebook posts, facebook messages, and texts thanking me for sharing a bit of my truth and helping women take the necessary steps to knowing their worth.
More humbling were the women that reached out to me and said, would you please share my story to the world for others to know? Keep my name and my children’s name out of it, but tell the world what I went through. To be fair and completely transparent some men reached out too.
I am in the middle of finishing a book about my life, my journey, my truth, but I also want to take the time and share the stories of the women that so courageously shared their truths with me. Some of these situations I personally witnessed as some of these women are my friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. Their stories need to be heard.
I will start by saying, this is not a competition. These are not stories for you to compare with the ones you have lived, your parents, and even some of your friends. The thoughts of “oh, well I went through worse” or “That’s not that bad” should never enter your mind. That is not a decision for you to make. These are stories of women who have been completely broken down either emotionally, physically, or financially and at times all three by the men they loved and supported and the women that did not stand by their side.
On October 13, 2019, I wrote an article so raw and filled with pain that my editor asked me to tone it down. She said she could tell the topic brought me a lot of pain. It was the story of a close friend. She had asked me to stand in court and help her fight for her kids. Without any hesitation nor even thinking about it twice I responded: “I WILL BE THERE.” I hope for my editors sake I have toned it down some.
One of the most frustrating things for me is not being able to write, say, or share information fast enough for people to see it, understand it, and then apply it. But even worse is not being able to truly grab someone’s attention and heart to make them see and understand how their actions are contributing to the problem at heart.
My personal passion has always been being able to empower, motivate, and help women and children make better choices, stand by each other, develop coping skills, and live better lives. So I ask,
- How do we get women to value themselves and see their worth?
- How do we get women to place their children and themselves first and not the need to have a man in their life?
- How do we get women to stand next to, in front of, and behind a woman rather than a worthless man?
Their stories need to be heard……..