Tell Them What I Did for You

Ana's life began with a perilous birth. Her mother, pregnant with Ana, is thrown through the windshield of a car driven by her drunk uncle on the way to midnight Mass. Ana was born with gangrenous feet four weeks later. In her first years of life, Ana's extended Louisiana Acadian family of Mama, Grandmother Malou, and Grandfather Poppee surrounded her. But her life changed dramatically when her father was released from prison. He began raping her repeatedly and emotionally abused her relentlessly. The rapes were somehow unrecognized by her family, and when she told them, they accused her of being imaginative. The early abuse set the stage for addiction and further victimization in adulthood. The only salvation she knew came from her devout Grandmother Malou who introduced her to the Roman Catholic Church, brought her to Mass regularly, and taught her prayers even before she could read. Throughout her recovery from addiction and fall out from early childhood abuse, she found help from priest, sisters, other devotees, the Twelve-Step program, and more than anything else, miracles that occurred in time to save her over and over.