About me – The beginning of my writing journey

Last pic ever

This pic was the last picture I would take with my dad prior to him being murdered in his home just 5 months later. This pic, is a milestone marker of challenges that would continue in my journey.

Fatherless

As the reality of being fatherless sunk into this little girl’s mind, she grew more withdrawn, more sad, more afraid. There seemed to be no hope for her, no one to lead her through this grief. Many times she was reprimanded for crying over the loss of her daddy.

The closet

Many times I found comfort in hiding in my closet when no one knew what to do or how to guide me through this intense grief. The murderers were running free out there somewhere. Nothing was coming together for the case to bring justice for my dad’s death. Even after a $10,000 reward posted by my grandfather, no one knew anything. My closet became my hiding place.

After another day of injustice, being reprimanded for being sad, I sat sobbing in my closet. My hand dropped to my side and bumped into a notebook. A pencil was laying next to it. I picked it up and begin to write furiously. Something shifted inside of me. It was like all of the pain I felt inside somehow landed on this paper intravenously from my heart through the tip of that pen.

Writing saved my life

So the writing journey began. I had a place that understood me, that let me talk through my little pencil. Sometimes words, sometimes scribbles but what was eating at my soul did not get to live there anymore. That devourer, grief, had to be bound in that notebook so I could review it, process it and learn to live with my loss and injustice. I am convinced that writing saved my life.