Myth and Meaning - Coping with Sexual Abuse

Written by Tammie Byram Fowles, PhD, LISW-CP

"There had not seemed to be anything worth doing, but shortly after I came out of hospital, I dreamed I was to be executed. I realized that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved..."

Hawking embraced the time that was available to him after his diagnosis and has indicated that he would not have achieved all that he has achieved if he had been able-bodied. His mother agrees, observing that before his illness, he had a number of interests that competed for his time and energy. His disability forced him to "concentrate his mind".

2) She was born with three strikes against her: she was poor, black, and female. When she was three years of age, her father sent her and her four- year- old brother by train from California to Arkansas to live with their grandmother. When she was six, she was taken away from her grandmother to live with her mother. While living with her mother, she was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend. When she finally told her mother, her perpetrator was murdered shortly after. She believed it was her mother's family who killed him, and she felt responsible for his death. For months she refused to talk to anyone but her brother. While visiting her father, she was stabbed in the side by his girlfriend. By the time she was 17, she was a single parent.

Maya Angelou became an accomplished singer, actress, poet and one of the finest women writers living today.

3) As a child, he was shy, sickly and lonely. Anxiety and fear plagued him. He loved his alcoholic father but was terrified of his violent temper. When he was 11 years of age, his father died. His first-born son, Elliot, died of "cholera infantum". Shortly after his son's death, his mother died. His fourth daughter died when she was four days old. He was forced to place his only sibling in a mental institution, where she remained until her death. His best friend was killed during the war. His daughter, Marjorie, died shortly after giving birth from what was called at the time, puerperal fever. A few short years later, his beloved wife died of a heart attack. His only remaining living son shot himself. Within six years he had lost his daughter, his wife, and his son.

4) He was the first born of four sons. His parents were poor and lived in the ghetto of Philadelphia. His father abandoned the family and his mother was forced to work 12 hours a day as a maid in order to support her children. His little brother died of rheumatic fever.

Much of the early material Bill Cosby used as a comedian was drawn from his difficult childhood in North Philadelphia.

5) At the age of 34, he was arrested for failure to pay his debts after yet another business failure. At 35 he was bankrupt. By the time he was 41, John Audubon had turned his love of painting birds into a lucrative career, and his name would be forever linked to the wildlife he so loved.

6) Her young husband died at the age of 26. Her infant son died just a few weeks after. Within a year, she also lost her mother. Her husband's business associates bankrupted her husband's business. She was poor, she was grieving and she was desperate.

In spite of the many strikes against her, Martha Coston developed, manufactured, and marketed the maritime signal flares, which are used to this day to assist ships in communicating.

7) At the age of 16, her left leg became crippled, leaving her housebound for almost 10 years. Because she was considered unattractive, crippled, and unskilled, her future was thought to be bleak.

Fannie Farmer became a household name with the success of her cookbooks.

8) She was born poor and lost her parents to yellow fever when she was seven- years old. Longing for a home, she married when she was only 14. At 16, she was a mother and a widow.

Sara (Madam C.J.) Walker started a business of her own, and was the first African American woman to become a millionaire.

9) Born a slave, as a child he was worked long hours, fed little, and whipped occasionally. At 17, he was sold to a family who sent him to a slave breaker. The slave breaker repeatedly beat and starved him in order to break his spirit.

Frederick Douglas published the "North Star", became a famous lecturer, and was instrumental in rescuing slaves and abolishing slavery.

10) She was described as a sad and lonely little girl. Her parents had wanted a boy, and she was a disappointment. She developed a number of fears in her childhood. She was afraid of animals, other children, the dark, and so much more. She was called the "Ugly Duckling."

Her mother was cool and distant. Her alcoholic father was her primary source of love and affection. When she was six, her father went to live in a sanitarium in order to deal with his alcoholism. When she was eight, her mother and brother died. She and her younger brother were then sent to live with her grandmother. Her grandmother was a stern and demanding woman. When she was 10, her father died.

She discovered, once she married, that her husband was having an affair with her secretary.

Eleanor Roosevelt has been described as one of the most admired and widely known women of the twentieth century. Her humanitarianism benefited the oppressed, the poor, the suffering, and children