The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abuse and Healing

Mary Ann said,  “It’s not that people don’t care.  They do care, but the issue is so intimidating.  They don’t know what to do, so they don’t do anything.” Mary Ann is the Executive Director of Heart of Grant County, the local agency that supports for survivors of domestic violence in Grant County, Oregon.  Since the county has fewer than 8,000 residents in an area twice the size of Delaware, Heart of Grant County also advocates for survivors of other forms of abuse. Mary Ann went on, inspired for her passion for supporting victims. “”When the Aryan Nations wanted to set up a headquarters in Grant County, people joined a coalition to stop hate crimes and came out and marched and rallied against the Aryan Nations.  Hate crimes are a good cause to rally against, but violence against women and children is a much bigger problem in Grant County than hate crimes. Unfortunately it is really challenging to rally people to come out and march against violence against wom...

January is a survivor of child sex abuse. She joined us on the Walk with the Homeless and is joining us on the Walk Across Oregon to End Abuse and Heal the wounds in Garibaldi Oregon.  She will be volunteering with Compassionate Gathering. Look for her posts on our  Facebook site   , Twitter Account and here at the Garden of Roses blog. January's parents were heroin addicts. Her father abused her repeatedly until she became a ward of the state of Oregon.  She was emancipated at age 18. January says that when she was younger she created chaos around her because how she only knew how to survive in chaotic environments. However, for the last 8 years she has been working on spiritual healing with a counselor who offered her services for free. January has a lot of positive energy, and we are grateful for her help. The rest of this blog is a collection of poems and reflections by January as well as a quote that appealed to her.        ...

There are walks and races to cure breast cancer and diabetes and a Walk for Animals to raise money for the humane society. There are even walks to raise money for homeless shelters, but I don’t know of any walks to draw attention to the connection between abuse and homelessness. So I decided to create one. I learned about this connection from Siggy, a man abused by the priest who baptized me Catholic. Siggy was a teenager when the priest chased him down and assaulted him repeatedly. Siggy reported the abuse. No one believed him. The lack of support and belief is almost as wounding as abuse is itself. Although he managed to earn a college degree, Siggy’s struggles with depression were too deep for him to maintain a job. Sadness would overcome him, and he’d walk off a job and lose it. When I knew him, Siggy survived by working odd jobs and, as he put it, by surfing the couches belonging to family and friends. I met Siggy after he had come forward for the fifth time 20 odd ...