Life in a Tornado: A true story of strength and resilience

This is a true story of a young girl's journey from the mid 1950's as a child into adulthood and beyond. It represents the formative years of my life. I compare this time to living in a tornado. My world was defined by unstoppable forces of nature that came out of nowhere. Tornados followed me my entire life. They came at me via a storm or something worse in my home. As you read my story, you may see parts of your own life depicted. Life is not easy for most of us. My experience with my mother's mental illness completely colored my life, but that was certainly not all. A lot of people along the way helped shape me into the woman I became. I wouldn't want to take this trip again if I could avoid it, but life has its own plans for us. Who am I to think I could change my destiny? Come along with me as you experience my world of tornados. The whole object is to survive them.
I wrote this story for one reason and that was to give hope to any person who felt that life was too hard and that the difficulties would never end. Remember that we are all given a little red wagon to pull behind us. You will empty it and fill it up along the way. There is always a tomorrow and God put you here on this earth to grab it and run for your rainbows. Just be sure to dodge the tornados if you can.