10 Comments
User's avatar
Esther Stanway-Williams's avatar

Incredibly moving Wendy. You were so vulnerable, and so desperate to get it right, my heart breaks for that little girl. So glad the therapy has led you to the healing power of reclaiming your narrative (and rescuing your younger self in the process) 🤗♥️

Expand full comment
Wendy  Gray's avatar

Thank you, Esther. I know, you know that pain is so incredibly hard to write about, yet there is such an important transformation and healing that occurs when we do. I love the words you put to the process: rescuing and reclaiming. So TRUE! I thank God every day for that therapy and for the therapeutic springboard of writing poetry. It all allows for healing, and with that, the little girl in me can find that resilient child's smile. I so appreciate your hugs and love. Thank you.🤗💞

Many blessings and MUCH LOVE,

~Wendy💜

Expand full comment
Carole Roseland's avatar

Well done, Wendy! That was grueling! Witnessing your parents in loud,violent fights I’m sure had many effects on you back then, and probably for a long time. My parents, sorry to say, were much the same. I watched my dad when I was a four year old attempt to choke my mom, and if I hadn’t run in and tried to break them up, my dad might have been successful. There were fights all the time. My dad did the same thing with his second and third wives, as well. I’m glad you got away from that eventually. I hope your sister is OK. I was going to be forced to do visitation with my dad, and I absolutely refused, which resulted in a lack of child support, but it was worth it. Of course, the trauma made me lose a lot of hair on the top of my head for a couple of years. I wish that no kid had to go through what we did!

Expand full comment
Wendy  Gray's avatar

Oh, Carole, biggest hugs to you. My heart breaks for your experience! You know exactly those horrors of life while in an abusive home. How we manage to grow up and move through our life traumas is a miracle in itself! My sister is okay. Thank you for thinking of her, too. She was two when we left our father, and thankfully, we had very little interaction with him after that. No forced visitation, thank God! Our grandparents, his parents as well as our mom's, helped shield us from that. So, we were fortunate. Sheesh! I can so relate with how not getting the child support was worth it! It sure was! I can not imagine how we would have turned out if we had been forced to be continually subjected to that kind of life. As for the trauma's affects, well our mom married again to a man who had a whole different set of traumas to place on us, which were far worse in so many ways; they sure took our minds away from life with him. Those poems are coming, but I'm spacing them out. As you know, just writing about one, is A LOT!

I do have those same wishes as you...NO kid should have to go through abuse at the hands of adults who are supposed to love them!

Thank you, Carole, for sharing your story. I pray that more of us, who have lived through these things, do share our stories. If it helps just one person, it is worth the difficulty of doing so.

So many hugs to you and MUCH LOVE.

~Wendy 💜

Expand full comment
Carole Roseland's avatar

And here we are, despite our parental influences, functional members of society, forging ahead, albeit with scars and healed fractures. Makes us more interesting, I guess.❤️

Expand full comment
Wendy  Gray's avatar

So agree! We also become strength personified, for sure. 💜🙌✨

Expand full comment
Marjorie Pezzoli's avatar

Your words rise to take the weight off your heart. Much love to you Wendy. May new and old hats receive your poem and know they are not alone 💜 I know this was not an easy share.

Expand full comment
Wendy  Gray's avatar

Your response is a loving hug, Marjorie. Thank you. Writing about the painful stuff of life has always been incredibly rough in the moment, yet the process is miraculously freeing; another ten ton boulder off of my shoulders. The sharing, however, was more difficult than I imagined. Though, it is like a final release and that felt better than expected. Writing is, and has always been, a true blessing and through it, I do hope others will know they are not alone in these life experiences, as much as it sure can feel like it. Sending you biggest hugs for your love and support. 💞✨🙏🏼✍🏼🧾

Many blessings and MUCH LOVE, always,

~Wendy💜

Expand full comment
Joan Livingston's avatar

Well written, but such painful memories.

Expand full comment
Wendy  Gray's avatar

Thank you, Joan. Your reading and response means a great deal. Painful stuff isn't easy to write about, but the process it is healing. I am grateful for that!

Blessings,

~Wendy💜

Expand full comment