Publisher's Synopsis
When a child is given up by her mother and winds up in a county orphanage with her five brothers, her young life spirals out of control. While confined in this institution, she experiences sexual abuse, separation anxiety, and the longing for a return of her absent father. Released back into the care of her mother as a teenager, she ends up caring for her seven younger siblings. While trying to make her way through her dreadful existence, the scared, naive girl longs to be loved, only to be exploited for that weakness. She is raped on her first date at 17 years old, leaving her emotionally scarred, afraid, and the mother of twin boys. As she worked to build a life, she met a man she fell head over heels in love with. He is 15 years her senior, but just what she is looking for: the father figure she lost at a young age, who could provide her with the love she so desperately desired. The problem is, he is a married man and father of three. He promises to leave his wife to be with her, and she believes him, willing to wait until the end of time if necessary, to be with the man she loved. Three children and five decades later while she is still waiting, reality comes crashing down, ruining her life, crushing her soul, stealing her mental health, and splitting what remains of her family. This is the true, real-life story of that woman, my mother, who lovingly raised her children in utter poverty, fighting her way out of the projects and into suburbia, while awaiting that day when she could have the thing she wanted most, but would never have: the love of her life as her husband. The story of her life unfolds through the eyes of her youngest son, as he watches as his mother is used sexually, emotionally, and financially by the love of her life, her friends, and even several of her children because she is excessively kind, exceedingly loving and all too trusting. Decades of this emotional turmoil does not end well for this beautiful soul, as her final years are spent slowly wasting away into the horrors of mental illness and an all too soon departure from the one child that had devoted his life to looking after the mother he loved dearly. This is the story of their trials and tribulations as they made their journey through life. It encompasses good times and bad, happiness and despair, sickness, and health. At its core, this book is a first-hand account, seen through the eyes of the author, of how a mother and her children, navigated the circumstances and challenges presented by a very difficult life, and still managed to find some happiness despite the abuse, lies, deceits, and betrayals that frequently befell them.
