The Legacy Excerpt of the Week

Thought for the Week
 "Self pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in the world."
Helen Keller
"Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world making the most of one's best."
Harry Emerson Fosdick

Excerpt for the Week

Book: The Legacy

In my twenty-two years of life, I have seen and suffered things no one should have to. Having been raised by an alcoholic mother and an abusive father, childhood was nothing but miserable for me. From the age of six to twelve years old, when other children were laughing and playing and sharing secrets with their friends, I was a woman-child, barely surviving and telling my secrets to no one. In the afternoons after school when I should have been busy being a child, I was subjected to the screams of my mother as my father beat her. And at night while other children were safely tucked in their beds and sleeping, I was forced to endure the sickening presence of my father in my room as he abused and defiled me.

One day my mother finally found the courage to leave her husband. She packed our things while he was working and moved us from Charlotte back to her hometown of Asheville. Unfortunately, the move was too little, too late, for my life had been permanently scarred. And it didn’t help that every man my mother moved into our home seemed to think I should be part of the deal.

Throughout my life I felt dirty and cheap, but more than anything, I felt alone. There was no one I could turn to and share my painful burdens. Later in life, that loneliness guided me to make decisions that only added to my misery, bringing even more shame upon me.

A single tear slips down my cheek as I remember the days and nights of endless partying, each episode filled with drugs, alcohol, and sometimes immoral conduct. When I was younger, my father made it his solemn duty to tell me repeatedly that I was worthless and only good for one thing in life. It seemed his comments found a permanent place in my mind and heart. My father had foreseen my future and helped as much as he could to make that future happen. But I know in the end the choices had been my own, just as the choice to finally change my life had been.

The all new revised edition of The Legacy will be available this weekend in paperback and Kindle format on Amazon.com