It's OK to Tell: A Story of Hope and Recovery - Hardcover

Book, Lauren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1935212435 ISBN 13: 9781935212430

Publisher: Prospecta Press, 2011

Synopsis

Lauren Book, now 25, was 11 years old when her new nanny, Waldina Flores, joined the family. For the next six years Lauren endured daily sexual and physical abuse. I was a people pleaser,? she says. I was beaten every day Waldy was very smart, like all predators are. She hit me and bruised me where my parents wouldn?t look. When you are 13 and 14 parents never look at their children?s stomachs or lower backs or butts or upper thighs.? Lauren is the oldest of three children; her father, Ron Book, is a prominent Florida attorney and lobbyist. In 2002, after being encouraged by her boyfriend, Lauren confessed to her therapist, who in turn called her parents. Her father fired Flores. She fled to Oklahoma and was arrested one month later while coaching a 10-year-old girls? soccer team. While in prison, Flores wrote love letters to Lauren asking for money and ultimately was sentenced to another 10 years on top of the initial 15 years. Since then, Lauren and her father have successfully mounted a legislative onslaught against predators; the many laws they are responsible for include the right to get 48-hour access to predators? HIV test results, a ban on molesters from ever contacting their victims or families, passed legislation to create a statewide network of sexual assault treatment centers, and the controversial act that barred predators from living 2500 feet from public places where children gather such as schools, parks, and playgrounds. Lauren?s memoir is a book about hope in the face of extreme adversity. While it deals with a tremendously sensitive and dark? subject, the hope that it delivers to readers carries an everlasting positive impact. Her story will empower readers to address abuse issues in their own lives and move them to understand the resulting deep emotional matrix that results from abuse and the incredible power of an individual?s ability to recover and embrace life.

About this title

About the Author:

Lauren Book recently graduated from The University of Miami with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and creative writing. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in elementary education at Nova Southeastern University. Lauren lives in Coral Springs with her husband, Kristopher Lim, a pro golfer and a tremendous supporter of Lauren.

Lauren founded Lauren’s Kids in 2007 with the mission to prevent sexual abuse through awareness and education and to help survivors heal with guidance and support. She has been instrumental in creating and executing a curriculum for grades K-3 that has been adopted by Florida’s Miami Dade County Public School System and hopes that it will be adopted nationwide.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Chapter 2
The Black Swan

November 2001
It’s been three months since I said the words I’d practiced silently for years, so scared of what might happen if I said them out loud.
My nanny has been forcing me to have sex with her since I was 13.”
This morning I’m in fifth period art class, trying to finish the last project for my junior year portfolio, which is due in three days. At school it’s easier not to think about everything that’s happened since I found the courage to tell. At least here no one knows about it yet. Home is a lot harder. There, it’s as if a bomb went off in our house after the truth came out, and it left a crater so deep you can’t see the bottom. It feels like maybe I lost an arm and my sister a leg, but we all pretend we can make things normal if we just don’t talk about it.
Of course, having the police around searching for evidence and interviewing each of us one at a time makes that pretty tough. Twice, I’ve had to go down to the police station to call, Waldy, that’s Waldina my abuser, on her cell phone with detectives listening in. They’re trying to get her to incriminate herself, but she’s too smart for that. Now, I’ve started worrying, what if she sneaks back to kidnap me. If there’s one thing I know it’s that Waldy can overpower me. When I said that to Dad the other day he called the sheriff for the umpteenth time to ask why they haven’t caught her yet. My little girl can’t sleep or eat with that woman still out there” I heard him say. It’s true. I’m down to 85 lbs.
I’ve always gotten good grades, but now I’m falling behind. With two weeks left before Christmas break, I’m cramming for finals, and I have two college applications to finish. I’ve spent this whole period trying to figure how to paint white feathers on my white linen watercolor sheet. The painting is supposed to be of the swans at the pond near our house, and so far I’ve managed the easy parts: the palm trees at the side of the road, some paddle boats lined up against the shore and even Chase and Waldy as little stick figures kicking the soccer ball around in the background. Not that anyone will know it’s them.
I look at the clock. There’s 15 minutes left in class, and no more time for do-overs. So I close my eyes and try to image the scene again. I’m standing alone by the edge of the water watching the swans glide across the pond like ballerinas in a perfect line. The swan in front points her head straight up and takes off, leaving a wake of ripples, making the others bob on the water behind her. What I want to paint is what comes next, when there’s nothing but air above and below her. Our swans never fly far or stay up in the air for very long. They just want a break. God, me too!
I can do this, I tell myself. I pick up the smallest thinnest brush, dip it in black, and paint the outline of the swan’s head and wingspan just after she spreads her wings. Nice now if I can fill in the sky behind her without messing? Oh darn just what I was afraid of...the black paint is running down my sheet, covering the swan like the sky is raining tar.
I put my head down on my knees.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prospecta Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1935212435
• ISBN 13: 9781935212430
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224