Darkness Was My Candle: A Memoir of Survival and Grace

Born into poverty and violence, Lora's early life was one of extreme vulnerability. She was prostituted for the first time at the age of nine and suffered unspeakable treatment from those who should have protected her. The impact of this early trauma led to her institutionalization soon after she started college, an incarceration she would not have survived but for a courageous nurse who fought for her release. Fifty years later, after a long career as a successful mental health professional, and recognized as leading educator and sought-after public speaker, Lora revisited the grounds of the Illinois state mental hospital where she was once kept in inhumane, degrading, and life-threatening circumstances. This profound and compelling memoir traces her life as a survivor of child abuse, sex trafficking, illegal pharmacological drug research, and institutional abuse. Having experienced such horrifying and traumatic events, how did she survive? And to what purpose? Seeking the resolution to these unanswered questions, Lora's experiences illuminate and validate the power of love and the strength of the indomitable human spirit that lives within each one of us. This is her story.