Fighting Through Injustice with Eunice Brownlee
ABOUT THE EPISODE
Today’s guest is Eunice Brownlee who I met almost three years ago at a conference. The thing that has always stood out to me about Eunice is that she has a calling to help people. I see this in her and in her writing, she shares vulnerably to make a difference. She challenges me to bring some of this into my own writing and I hope she inspires the same from you.
Episode CW: Child Abuse
TOPICS DISCUSSED
Going from not wanting to be a mother to unexpectedly getting pregnant
Transitioning from a single parent to a co-parenting relationship
Injustice experienced in the judicial system, specifically in family court
Understanding the different forms of abuse that can happen
How Eunice protected herself and the importance of a support system
Eunice’s solicited advice
RESOURCES MENTIONED
THIS WEEK’S WRITING PROMPT
Reflect on a time when you had to advocate for your child. What were you protecting them from and what was the outcome?
ABOUT EUNICE
EUNICE BROWNLEE has spent her career finding the balance between her left and right brains. She is a passionate writer and writes regularly about mental health, trauma, and abuse. She's also a solo mother, striving to raise a daughter who is strong and outspoken. Eunice has been published in The Kindred Voice, Motherscope, and Spoken Black Girl. Eunice’s current project is a book about the trauma of navigating the justice system as a victim of a crime. When she’s not doing any of the above, she can be found seeking her next passport stamp and drinking wine.
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Speaker 1 00:04
Hi, Eunice, how are you? I am good. Jackie, how are you?
Speaker 2 00:10
I'm great. I was actually thinking this morning about how we've actually met before in person and how long it's been. It's been like,
Speaker 1 00:19
a couple of over three years,
Speaker 2 00:21
almost three years. And the circuit like how, you know, at the time, it was like, we were two writer moms. And I feel like you you initiate it, or you're one of the people that was like, Yeah, let's do this. And there were a handful of other people, we were like, oh, we should get together at all. And it never happened. And just being able to sit and talk to, I remember was like, Oh, I really would like to get to know this person more like, you know, somehow work together with her in the future. And then fast forward to now where I've just felt so honored to get to like, have your writing a part of another scope and get to know you in this way has been really cool.
Speaker 1 00:58
Yeah, it's been so fun, because I met you right after you launch mother's scope, and you're still trying to figure out exactly what direction you wanted to take it. And the fact that your mission was to just share stories of motherhood was so inspiring to me. And the thing that I've seen develop over the last couple of years is how impactful those stories have been. You have so many different moms with so many different perspectives. And yet, we've found like this, this kindred spirit within one another, and have began to build friendships based off of our shared experiences, even though not all of our experiences have been the same. So
Speaker 2 01:42
cool. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. And I have to remind myself who I've met, and who I haven't sometimes, because I feel like just from zooms, and reading and just interacting online, I just, I'm like, I feel like I know this person, like I like have just hung out with them all the time. And I guess we have it just it's like a different way to do it just feel so. So strange to say like, oh, I'm like, I don't go have coffee with them, because I know them so well. So and that that speaks to how much you share and how, for lack of a better word authentic you are with in the different ways that you share who you are, and the things that you do. So I'm really looking forward to people getting to know you a little bit more through this episode. Can you first share a little bit about yourself? From your words?
Speaker 1 02:31
Sure. So my name is Eunice, and I am a single mom, I live in Denver, Colorado. And I kind of accidentally fell into motherhood, if you will. I never really wanted to be a mother. In fact, I was married before I got pregnant. And one of the biggest challenges that we had in our relationship was that he really wanted kids and I really didn't. And so that was kind of like one of the catalysts to the end of our marriage. And then my friends, as lovely as they are, and as well intentioned as they are, ended up setting me up on a blind date with one of their mutual friends. And I wasn't ready for a relationship by any means. But I got pregnant. And it was one of those freaky things where birth control didn't work. And I had a kid, and it's just been an experience. So she's been awesome. And I'm really grateful to have her just wasn't ever an experience that I expected for myself. So it's been kind of fun to see how that's played out. And other than that, I'm a writer, and a speaker. And I guess you could say my day job right now is marketing. So I've been doing marketing for about a dozen years now. And I really like it. So that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 2 04:00
Yeah, we'll get more with the story that you're going to share. So you decided that you wanted to talk a little bit about the biggest hurdle that you've overcome, as a mom. And I'd love for you to take it away and share that story.
Speaker 1 04:19
Yeah, and I just want to issue just a brief content warning for anyone who's listening. My story does discuss child abuse. And so if you're not comfortable listening to that, please don't continue. Yeah, so as I mentioned, my, the father of my child and I we're not ever in relationship, the first five years of his her life, he didn't want to have anything to do with her. I'm still not sure exactly what changed but the night before she turned five, he decided that he wanted to be a dad. And so for the first time in her life, she started relationship with Her dad, on her fifth birthday. And things were kind of okay. It was a very hard adjustment for me because I had been parenting all by myself for five years. And now I have this other person or this CO parent who I don't know very well. And now I have to figure out what works for the two of us. And learning how to let go of some of that control to of like, accepting that what was happening at his house, I didn't have control over, which was very hard for me to do in and of itself. But one of the things that was really different about the two of us is that we were very, very different in our parenting styles, I tend to be much more of a go with the flow laid back permissive parent, and he is very much an authoritarian and very physical with his punishment, which, at the time I justified in that this was how we both grew up, it didn't really hurt us, we turned out fine. Spoiler alert, we didn't turn out fine. And and so it was just very hard for me to accept and justify his the way that he addressed punishment. And yet, because it didn't quite meet that threshold of abuse, there wasn't anything I could do about it. So it really was, I had met with an attorney. And she's like, this is a difference of parenting styles. There's not a problem here, like, you're not going to get anywhere with the court system. And so I never pursued anything. So fast forward to about five years later. So she was 10. Not quite, almost 11. And I had gotten a phone call from the school. And they let me know that there had been a situation and that they were notifying the authorities. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, what's going on? And they said, it seems that we have a case of child abuse. Okay, I'll be right there. So I left work, and I headed over to the school. And I waited for the police to show up. And we had this whole big confusion over what jurisdiction everything was in because we live in two different counties, the school had the wrong address on file for him, which was in a third jurisdiction. And so like, all these police show up, and it was like, Oh, my gosh, I don't even know what's happening here. They did interviews, they took a report, they took pictures, all this stuff. And so ultimately, we ended up deciding to file child abuse charges. And so the challenge, my biggest hurdle was not even dealing with the fact that my child had been hurt by somebody who is supposed to love her. That was hard enough as it was. But what I didn't know is that the court battle was going to be even harder. It was January 31 2017, was when the incident happened. And our first court hearing was in May. And so even just that waiting for everything to happen was agony. And I remember showing up to the courthouse that very first day and thinking like, well, this will be easy. We know he did it, we know everything will get a guilty plea. The he'll get sentenced, everything will be fine. And then we can move forward. And we can start to heal. And the little known fact about the justice system is that it's not that easy. It's not that that clean, cut and straightforward. And because of the Fifth Amendment. And because of the way our justice system relies so much on innocent until proven guilty, the person who gets centered at that process is the defendant 100% The victim is kind of on the sidelines. And that was another thing that I wasn't really expecting was how little my voice mattered. In fact, I got I got a notice of the hearing that said, You're not required to attend this hearing. But we're just notifying you because you do have a right to participate if you choose to. And so just the fact that it was that I wasn't required to be there was weird to me and shocking. And then once we got into the courtroom, I realized why it's we were just ancillary to the process as you will. And so that was really, really hard. We showed up at that hearing, and I was so nervous. I thought I was gonna throw up. And I was hopeful. And my victim advocate came out and met me and she's this cute little woman. She couldn't have been more than five feet tall. And her name was Debbie. She was just so cute and she buzzed around like this busy little bee. She's just bouncing all over the place. And I realized it was because she was managing multiple cases that morning. And she asked me if I wanted to sit in the courtroom or if I wanted to sit in a private room. And I decided to sit in a private room because I was just like, You know what, I just can't even look at his face. I haven't seen his face in five months. I just can't, I can't do this. And it was hard. It was a lot of waiting. I didn't even expect that, like our hearing was at like 9am. And I think I sat there in the courtroom till one, one o'clock, maybe to an and it was just so hard. And the DA kept popping in and out. And she was having discussions with them trying to get a plea deal, plea deal sorted out and then and then she comes in, and she's like, well, we have an issue. I was like, what's going on? And she said, Well, they're claiming that they have a new discovery. And I'm like, What does that even mean? And she said that well, what discovery is, is basically evidence or potential evidence. And so she was saying that they were claiming that they had potential evidence that would clear the defendants name. And so they were going to ask for a continuation. And she's like, how do you feel about that, and I was like, I just want to be over, I want to be done with this. Like, it's already been a really long couple of months. And waiting another 30 days just doesn't feel great. And she's like, Okay, well, we'll save that for the record. But we're going to go ahead, and we don't have any choice but to accept, because it's their right to be able to pursue this. And she's like, I don't know what they could be talking about, because I should have whatever they have. But I'll let you know. And so we went through five months of that of constant continuations, delays. I didn't do this. At one point, an investigation was ordered of me because the defense was going to say that I made everything up, that it wasn't as bad as it was. Because that's another part of the family court system is parental alienation, which is total BS. But it took five months, a violation of our protection order. And I don't know how many tears before we finally were able to settle on a plea deal, which was almost exactly the same as the one we originally offered. And then, and then things were finally sort of done. So just going through that process and fighting like hell to protect my kid. While through that entire process, I was completely villainized and villainized, or vilified, I'm not sure but just made to made to be made out to be like I was the horrible person, because I was the one who did all of this. And I was the one that was pursuing these charges. And I was the one who was taking my child away from her father. And meanwhile, he was taking zero responsibility for any of it. And so I was just, it's to this day, it still chaps me that we had to go through that much effort. And we were set to go to trial. And that was absolutely the thing that we we wanted to do. And yet we didn't want to do because if we went to trial, it would have meant Alyssa, my daughter would have had to take the stand. And that would have been so horribly traumatic for her. And so her therapist and I were in agreement that we absolutely wanted to avoid that if we could, but we weren't going to do that without holding him responsible for what he had done.
Speaker 2 13:50
So, yeah, I feel like in addition to this being like the biggest hurdle that you've had to overcome, it sounds like this has been like something that's like really shifted your life in a way, like set you on a different course because I just see that. I mean, you spoke earlier before I hit record about working on writing a book right about this, you know, as a result of this experience, and it's one of those things where it's like once you're there and you see that, I mean the injustice of something that you knew about but did an experience you just can't like, be quiet about it anymore. It sounds like
Speaker 1 14:33
so yeah, and and for me, it's been recognizing that my experience isn't unique. I read Chanel Miller's know my name, which if you haven't read that book, I highly recommend it Chanel Miller is the Jane Doe from the Stanford rape case from several years ago and her experience was the same. And it's just it's so frustrating because In all of this, the victim always seems to be lost. The reason why we sit in that courtroom always seems to be lost, once we get into the processes and procedures of a criminal case. And the other thing that was so striking to me is, I've watched way too much law and order, like there's, there's a crime, and then they charge the crime, and then they go to court, and then there's a trial, and then there's a conviction, and it's done. And it all feels like it happens in a pretty rapid pace. And knowing how overwhelmed the court systems are, you would think that there would be some level of making sure that we get through this, which there is like, the reason that plea deals are made is for expediency. It's not to absolve somebody of their crimes, it's to not bog down the court system, because trials are costly. And I quote my da, and this, juries are weird. And so once you get to a trial, you don't have a guaranteed conviction, regardless of how tight the case may be. You just never know how that's gonna play out. And so, and that was hard for me to hear two was was that was in the violation of the protection order case. It was very clear. There was no he said, she said, there was no evidence was just completely clear. And she's like, well, it's, it doesn't make sense for us to pursue this case, because juries can be weird. I was like, Are you kidding me? Do I get a say in this at all, because I absolutely want to prosecute this because somebody violated us. And that's not okay. And so I think that that's a big part of the culture of victims staying quiet is because going through the process of getting justice is harrowing, and heartbreaking, and you don't have a guaranteed outcome.
Speaker 2 16:59
Yeah, that's what really just infuriates me to think about those the comments that people make sometimes when an allegation comes up, and it's like, almost like the first inclination is to say, oh, somebody made it, you know, somebody is going after this person, it's a lie and knowing how much you have to do to even get to a point where they're at that point. It just, I know, outliers exist, but the norm should not be that expectation, because it Ray, it's so you're giving up so much to come forward and say something that I just, it just really frustrates me that that's still I think what a lot of people first jump to, and maybe it is this innocent till proven guilty kind of assumption that we kind of do across the board. But I really had never heard it explained this way, how you said that, because of that, you know, the innocent till proven guilty that the defendant is centered in this defense case? It after you said I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. That's yeah. Because around that, you know,
Speaker 1 18:11
yeah, it no longer is about what happened to the victim. It's now whether or not this is the person who did it. And yes, there are always outliers. The whole reason that innocent until proven guilty exists is because of those outliers. Because of the times that people have made false accusations for land, or for other property or money or whatever. There are always people who are going to have those sinister intentions. But statistics have shown in the case of abuse, and assault, false allegations are very, very uncommon. And so, and the burden of proof is on us, right? Like, if I'm accusing this person of doing something, I'm the one who has to do all the work to prove that they did it. They don't have to prove that they didn't. And so that's also part of the struggle.
Speaker 2 19:07
Yeah, and I think that's where the shutdown happens, where it's like, it's a he said, she said, situation in a lot of cases. And that's, I mean, that's going to naturally make somebody go, I don't even think I'm going to say anything. So for you to have I know, you had your own major challenges that you had to advocate for both yourself and your daughter in this situation. And you had an outcome. And it was still especially challenging. just speaks to why so many people can't do it. Why, yeah, don't want to or whatever, but it just they can't.
Speaker 1 19:48
And when you're dealing specifically in this part with abusive personalities, you have the abuser who has a personality that is true to you. And they have a personality That's true to everyone else in the world. And so there becomes this like, oh, well, that person couldn't ever have possibly done this. Ironically, my Timehop popped up this morning, because we had just gotten four years ago, a couple days ago was our, our, our final hearing and where we got our conviction. And I had shared with that with our community on Facebook, and his neighbor, who I forgot, was one of my friends on Facebook was like, I can't believe that you're saying all these lies about him, blah, blah, blah, because he's not that person. And I was like, I need you to understand that he's not that person to you. But he's absolutely that person to us. And both of those things can be true, the duality Can, can exist. And so I think that's another reason why a lot of victims don't come forward is because a big part of these cases, is character. You know, the defense will bring in everybody to support this positive, amazing, wonderful character, and at the same time, do everything to completely obliterate the character of the accuser.
Speaker 2 21:10
Well, that's interesting. I don't want to I don't want to get into the details of the case. But it's interesting that the, the victim was a child. And it sounds like in some ways, you became kind of the target of the case. And I absolutely, yeah. And that's well as
Speaker 1 21:33
the advocate, because she can't stick up for herself. And that that's the other thing that's so hard for me as a mother. But just as a person who cares about people. And a humanitarian is that kids don't have rights. They've totally rely on grownups to advocate for them in situations. And so I think that that is how I became the target was because I was advocate, I became her voice. And so a lot of a lot of the backlash came back to me, because as I said before, like I was the one who did all this. And it was like, actually, I wasn't even the one who called the police to begin with it was the school. I wasn't the one who got this ball rolling. But I absolutely intended to keep it going like for my daughter, because she deserves that.
Speaker 2 22:22
Yeah, well, and speaking on speaking to the fact that they were character witnesses, or like a neighbor, saying, you know, that couldn't be that person. We're not even acknowledging the inherent power dynamics of a child and an adult or a child and a parent. And how a neighbor, an adult who's got the same power dynamic as his other neighbor, would have a completely different like, we're not, I don't know why I just It says something about just the world at large. Why we can't like understand that these different relationships impact the way people are.
Speaker 1 22:57
Yeah, absolutely. Well, on email, like one of the the things that I wish I could take back. I just got a call. One of the things that I wish that I could take back is at that day that they were interviewing me and the police were like, well, has he ever been abusive to you? I was like, no, never because I quantified at that point in my head abuse was when somebody put your hands on, put hands on you. And it's more than that, like he absolutely had been abusive to me. I just didn't know it until I started going to therapy. And I was like, Holy crap, like, wow, yes, He absolutely has an abusive personality. And I absolutely have seen it. But you know, it, that wasn't how it started. He was this nice, congenial guy who was a lot of fun. And we had fun together. And we enjoyed doing things like going snowboarding together and go into the rodeo, and like, all these different things, and it was fun for a while. And then when I became a liability, then that was when he started not being a great person. And there's a lot of times where I feel like, and I carry mommy guilt around this. Like, I feel like he was resentful of the fact that I ended up pregnant and he had to be a dad, although he didn't choose to be at first but that he took that out on her. So you know, I have no control over that. I'm learning to reconcile like, that wasn't me. That wasn't her. That was all him.
Speaker 2 24:35
Yeah. I want to commend you just for because you talked about mom guilt and just know how hard the job can be. And I can imagine as a single parent who's had to advocate so much for her child's I just think God you believed her you know that you like stood up and took that role and took that on yourself as you know a mother should but we You know, we all know that that doesn't always happen. And yeah, you know, I'm sure there's still to still be raising a teenager. And it wasn't like there's like this happy ending at the end of the outcome that it all goes away. But even being in the weeds still, I feel like that has to have these long lasting impacts that you should feel really proud of yourself for doing that.
Speaker 1 25:26
Yeah, well, and like, to what you just said about believing her. It took me a while to get there, because for a couple of years prior to this incident, she was terrified to go over there. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, this kid, it's a transition. She's not used to it. Like I think it was maybe a year before all this happened, we had just transitioned to like full 5050 parenting time. And she was just like, I don't want to go, I don't want to go. And I was like, downplaying her emotions. And it wasn't until all this happened. It was like, Oh, my gosh, like, this has been happening. And it's been this bad. And I didn't believe my kid enough to advocate for her before she got extremely hurt and extremely traumatized. And so I've learned how to forgive myself for that, too.
Speaker 2 26:15
Yeah, it's like, once you know better you do better?
Speaker 1 26:19
Yeah, like you just don't want to believe Right? Like, like, just like the neighbor. I didn't want to believe that he was that person either. Because what does that say? What does that mean? How do we move forward?
Speaker 2 26:31
Right. I want to I'm curious to know a little bit about what you have did for yourself during this time or after this experience to recover? Because I can imagine you went into kind of like full on like, I have to do this and like maybe wrote off the adrenaline of the experience. But there had to have been a moment where you were, like, depleted by it. And what how you kind of, were able to bounce back from that.
Speaker 1 27:02
I don't know, bounce back completely. Because my therapist
Speaker 2 27:05
still bounce back. I don't know if that's the right word.
Speaker 1 27:08
But yeah, like I have been diagnosed with secondary P PTSD, and chronic PTSD, because of all of this. And so like, my body is in this, what my chiropractor says is a permanent sympathetic state. So I'm constantly in fight or flight mode. And it doesn't take much for me to be like, put back into that re traumatized state. And so, therapy for sure. EMDR is a motor modality that works with trauma, and helps mitigate a lot of that. So now, I can't stop the panic attacks, but I can get them under control and get myself back to a place where I feel normal, a lot faster because of that. So lots of therapy. And the biggest thing is, I have such an amazing support system that because I'm a single mom, I've relied on for many, many years. So when it came time to call on them, every single one of them was there for me, they defended me against the things people were saying about me, they picked up my daughter from school so that I could go get a massage. They, they one of them watched my daughter while I went to Costa Rica for 12 days. And so like, I just, I just am so grateful for the community that I've had. And that like, I think that that's been the biggest thing more than anything, is just knowing that I have people who will help me take care of myself. Because it's a lot, it's really easy when you're in these modes to just be like, Nope, I gotta get this done, I gotta get this done, I got to get this done, and forget to take care of yourself in the process, so that you have the stamina to see it through to the end.
Speaker 2 29:00
Thank you for your just being so candid. Because I think in some ways I was projecting because I've learned about myself that I in the moment or in the high stress times I'm really effective. And then when it's done then there's like the come down and I'm somebody who's living with complex PTSD. And so to hear you kind of share that it's not something that you like, Oh, I did this and then I like, you know, and then it was over. And you know, it's like you've learned that this is who you are. And there are things that you need, can surround yourself with to Yeah, manage and keep yourself at a more grounded or bound balance, whatever that place where you are, you know, able to, but you're you're almost you're just more aware of what can quote unquote set you off and you've surrounded yourself with the supports that get you through it.
Speaker 1 30:00
Yeah, well, I mean, it's it's one of those things like, always, I didn't know this about trauma, but like trauma just it gets stored in your body like fat. And it will come up and surprise you when you least expect it. Sometimes Sometimes you can see it coming. But like, this process is a part of me what I've been through as a part of me what my daughter has been through, there's a part of her, it's not ever going to, like completely disappear. What we've learned over the years is how to manage it so that it's not controlling and dominating our lives. Because trust me, I've definitely had many, many, many days where I've cocooned and just put my blackout shades on and curled up under the blankets and decided I wasn't getting out of bed for three days. So for sure we have those days, but just recognizing like, they are a part of us, but they're not who we are.
Speaker 2 31:01
Yeah, and learning that some of those days are some of those moments of cocooning are actually necessary and not necessary, not a sign of a major setback, I think is a good way to, like, you know, it's like sounds like you've learned to not beat yourself up over what you need. Yeah.
Speaker 1 31:25
This bit I saw, I saw, I think on Instagram this morning, that was exactly that is that a lot of times people feel like, once they've come through something hard, they should be happy and joyous, that it's over. And not right. And so many people don't recognize that you do have to get into that recovery period. And so if you do move into a period of grieving, that's totally normal. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, was this lightbulb moment where I was like, Wow, that's so true. Because I did after our court stuff was over, I had to go through a process of grieving, like I was so excited that this relationship that I had begged for for five years was gone. And that it was never going to be what it had potential to be ever. And so I had to agree with a lot of that. And I had to readjust to becoming a full time single mom again, which that was also very hard.
Speaker 2 32:24
Well, again, I just thank you for being very open. And sharing this, I know that there's so many voices that don't get to speak to this. So so thank you for that.
Speaker 1 32:37
Thank you for giving me a voice. Yeah, if there was one thing that I felt like I had through that entire process was that I had no voice that my voice had been taken away.
Speaker 2 32:50
Things need to change. And I think through advocacy, my hope is that it'll be heard more when people kind of stand up, like you who are able to so thank you. I'm going to transition because I feel like I can we can go on and on to the closing, which is three requests of you. The first is what's the song that you would you use to describe your motherhood experience?
Speaker 1 33:23
When you sent me that question, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is so hard. So hard. And then as I was journaling about our discussion, it just like hit me clear as day fighter by Christina Aguilera.
Speaker 2 33:37
I know that one. That's,
Speaker 1 33:39
I love that song. And I actually looked up lyrics. I'm like this. Yeah, this is it. This is one.
Speaker 2 33:46
That's great. The last few songs that people have said, I didn't know. And I was like, Oh, I've got to listen to that one. But I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1 33:54
I could feel that. And I can plateless coming of all we do
Speaker 2 33:58
we do. So it'll be good. This is a it'll be a fun one. And the next thing is, moms get so much unsolicited advice, I would love to actually solicit from you some advice that you would share to other moms?
Speaker 1 34:15
Yes, I am going to give the only piece of advice that I give to other moms solicited or otherwise, only you know what's best for you. And don't let anyone convince you otherwise. That was probably the most priceless piece of advice I was given. Because always like, when even before we become mothers, there's so much stuff that's like thrown at us and you're like, I don't know what to do. Do I do natural diapers or storebought? Do I breastfeed or do I do formula? Do I do a natural birth or do I do a C section law? Like there's so many things thrown at you, but you know what's best for you, you know what's best for your family? And if you're making those decisions based off of what you know, intuitively is right. You're not going to go wrong. And I've found that advice to be true for the last 15 years. That is perfect.
Speaker 2 35:08
So to segue to the end, the beginning I talked about meeting you and learning about your right you being a writer. You're now a month long contributor, and I'd love for you to share some of your most recent writing with us before you go.
Speaker 1 35:27
Absolutely. So this is from my piece 53 hours, which depending on when this podcast airs will be released at the end of October. Or if you're a subscriber, it should be in the mailbox in the next few days. Recently, an acquaintance of mine posted an Instagram update that her son had been found safe. If I were still using Facebook, I would have known that he had disappeared on his own accord 39 hours earlier. I would have been able to tell her that I completely understood what she was going through, because I had lived the same nightmare 18 months before. On the evening of January 1 2020, my daughter disappeared. New Year's Eve she had been given permission to stay with a friend in our neighborhood. While I stayed where we were dog sitting for the week. She ditched the friend and headed to downtown Denver with a group of friends I didn't know like or trust. I spent hours demanding her to come home as any 13 year old is want to do. She ignored every call and text. I know it'd be impossible to find her among the New York New Year's Eve crowds. So I waited and hoped she would come home safely
Speaker 2 36:50
Thank you. So you guys are gonna have to read the rest of that when it goes live on the website or like you said if your subscriber you get that in the mail. It's a very candid story about a difficult moment for the a lot of mom's fear and that you lived and so you'll want to check it out. How can people continue to follow along with you or get to know you better online? Yes.
Speaker 1 37:19
Um, they can find me on Instagram at Speaker 1. It's pretty much where I live these days. So you can find me there. And then if I have things that I want to share outside of Instagram, I do have a link to my tap bio, in my bio that has links to my writings, including my past mom salon stories, and some of my other pieces that are out there in the world.
Speaker 2 37:44
Awesome. Thanks so much for giving your time and sharing the story with us and just so grateful to know you. So I really appreciate it our time together today.
Speaker 1 37:58
Thank you, Jackie. This has been amazing