Free at Last! Gail's Story ...
Freedom from a Painful Past
I remember being beaten with extension cords and being choked. I was made to stand in the corner for hours at a time, until I would eventually fall asleep, shares Gail Holmes, recalling the physical, sexual and emotional abuse she suffered during her six years in foster care.
When she was just 9, Gail was taken away from her mother, an alcoholic with a gambling addiction. She was shuffled between six foster homes, where she was often the victim of abuse. In one home, the foster father paid her for sex. In another, a teen boy regularly beat her up.
Tragically, when she returned to her mother’s care, things didn’t get any better for Gail. She was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend, then raped by a teen who later murdered his mother for drug money.
Gail spent the next 10 years in and out of bad relationships, until she’d finally had enough. She left her hometown in South Carolina for a new life in Kansas City. Gail came to City Union Mission and joined our New Life Program, where she gave her heart to the Lord and began to heal.
I am not the person I used to be, Gail says with great joy. She plans to go to college and to minister to other abuse victims. My future is looking very positive. I feel really free, and I’m not afraid any more. I want people to know what I’ve been through, because if I can do it, they can do it too.
