This is the last time I will tell this story.   I need my mother’s love.   I knew this all of my life and It is still true today.   I need my mother’s love.   She was beautiful and I would have told h

  Slashing became a part of my life at 21. Shocking behavior, some might think, but not so to me. I'd been two decades in a severely-dysfunctional family and I could only guess at what healthy was. Cu

All names are changed to protect the guilty.  This was a second gang rape.   Dear Tom,   I’m sure you remember me. We both lived in the same town at one time and you and I were in the same grade s

A year ago I wrote a story on my use of anti-depressant drugs and my experiences in the mental health system.   My subsequent choice against anti-depressants has led me into a different arena–the crim

  If only I had known How tough it would be to be jump-started daily by a vacuum cleaner hose Cracked over my legs And Mom’s shrill tones Yelling, accusing. Frantic, I fall out of bed still shaking a

Every year, the same question, an accusation for some. "Do we really need Women's Day?" Of course, we do. And why not?   So, I've been away and I've been quiet. My friends know why, no need to go bac

The last three and a half years I have spent working in a call center for the local utility company. It has been three and a half years of emotional, verbal, and mental abuse, to put it mildly. No o

What is freedom? and what do you do with it? We can all be free, even when we don't think we can. It's a state of mind. "Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." This is one of my favouri

Read in the Guardian Not the way to free women from their abusers! News Society Domestic violence Cuts force domestic violence refuges to turn victims away Charities say funding cuts mea

I overheard a woman say, “Girls can be SO catty.”The woman she was talking to responded, “They ARE, aren’t they!”It was a lesson my mother taught me. Her point was: “Don’t trust girls, they’re out to