"...an indispensible resource for homilists"-- Cover back.

Appealing reminiscences of small-town life by one of the South's most enchanting oral storytellers

It's My Story to Tell: Shattering the Veil of Silence By: JoMarie Lawson Childhood sexual abuse is a global crisis of pandemic proportion that is permitted to continue, largely unaddressed and ignored in our society today. It’s My Story to Tell is a debut memoir that is a raw, disturbing, and thought-provoking truth that many children in homes all across America are facing every day. It is a personal, detailed recollection of a woman’s growth and reckoning as a child, growing up in a dysfunctional blended family. A child that was sworn to secrecy regarding the inappropriate behavior she endured, all in the name of protecting the family image of perfection. Now an adult with her own husband and children, JoMarie lifts the veil of silence that has long kept her hiding in plain sight behind the damage of childhood sexual abuse, at the hands of someone she loved and trusted to be her protection. Her detailed journey combined with gems of wisdom and lessons learned along the way are enlightening, defying expectation and inviting readers to reconsider the secrets kept within the walls of our homes. Secrets that are permitted to continue, even when inappropriate behavior occurs. In this memoir, Jomarie invites her readers to see firsthand, how this experience single handedly continues to shape who she has become and impacts every area of her life years after the fact. She held onto this secret for decades and if research is true, she is not alone. There are millions of Adult Survivors of child sexual abuse that have never told their story. Her hope is that by the releasing of her experience, on her own terms, in her own way, others will be encouraged to do the same and set themselves FREE. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.