(3 of 5) “In May 2015, my sister came to me and said that she was starting an organization. She was going to call it Nita’s Angels. She wanted to help girls like herself who were being trafficked. She told me,...
(2 of 5) “The police knocked on my door to tell me that my sister had been murdered and that they were looking for my nephew. They didn’t say he had done it. I was devastated. All I knew was that...
(1 of 5) “My sister, Nita, and I grew up in an abusive home. We were both in and out of the system, she more than I. She went to the Chimney Rock in Houston when she was 14. It’s a...
“Being a little country girl from Beaumont, I was always tomboyish. Although I wasn’t very girly, I was a cheerleader all through school. My junior year, I got kicked off the squad because I had the only fight in my entire...
“To get my book out there, I was told that I needed to perform my poetry. And I was like, ‘Um, no.’ I’ve been performing since I was 3, singing at church, in the school choir, and for different events through...
“I was 26 years old. It was my first pregnancy. I was healthy. I was athletic. Then it just happened. They told me, ‘Your cervix is gone.’ I had what’s called an incompetent cervix. It can lead to premature birth or...
“If it was not for what I’d gone through, then I couldn’t do what I do now. I’m what’s called a mental health and addiction recovery peer support specialist. Simply by the word peer, it means that I’ve been there, done...
“By the time I was about 25, I started running around with people who did things that were just unheard of when I was growing up. That’s how I got into drugs. Except for the four years when I was bringing...
“We’re a combined family. He has seven kids from his previous marriage and I have two. I also have custody of my two grandkids, so together we have 11. Eight of them live at home. “After being off almost a whole...
Roger: “I hadn’t seen my two brothers in Michigan in quite a while, so I went up there to visit. One day while I was driving to the park, I noticed a woman whose car was broke down on the side...
