360 Communities - Fire & Ice Gala

On November 16, my daughter, Kristin, and I were guests of honor at the 360 Communities’ Fire and Ice gala event to raise money for this incredible organization. Helping women and children flee domestic violence, 360 Communities, the umbrella organization for the Lewis House, was instrumental in helping Kristin and me start a new life after we fled many years of physical and emotional abuse. 360 Communities created a video to play at the event and afterward, I gave a heart-felt speech of gratitude to the Lewis House. Our book, Dancing to My Heartbeat: A Mother and Daughter’s journey from Victim to Victorious, chronicles the amazing journey that Kristin and I traveled. As one person commented about the Fire and Ice gala photos, “Wow! You all look so vibrant.” Kristin says it best as to why. ”I agree…I think I’m glowing too. Here’s why…for so many years (as you know my entire childhood-college age), I was told by my father that if I said anything to anyone, ‘I will have to either kill you or your mom or both of you.’ So, you hide it all, every hurtful word and every bruise given to you, from even those most close to you. This was not to protect my father, the abuser, but to protect my mom and myself. Short story…we struggled, we moved forward and built our dream together and life moved forward more. Now, I’m creating work to honor women and their tremendous strength while my mom is focused on the growth of children through creativity. But still, I’ll never forget that very real and constant threat…never. We worked HARD and we built and we learned and we grew. Then out of the blue 24 years later, we’re standing in front of a crowd of 400 strangers at a gala, telling it all in a video, (exactly what you’re not supposed to do for fear of your life). Afterward, I find myself standing next to my courageous mom who’s giving a moving speech…then looking out at the crowd, a standing ovation is happening. It’s all just one of those moments in life that you couldn’t have possibly expected. Transparency of our personal experiences is SO hard. It’s a terribly vulnerable experience, (even more than presenting our art which as we know is of course terrifying in its own right), but this experience was remarkable in that no one blamed us for my father’s violence. They listened and thanked us for having the courage to share it. Unexpected human kindness, empathy, understanding of what we’ve overcome and gratitude in what we’ve done with our time on earth…it’s just good…and we all need more, ‘good’ from each other. Ain’t that the truth! So, I think that’s why I’m glowing.” ❤️