CATEGORY

Gayle Sanders grew up in a seemingly happy middle-class household, but everything was not as it seemed. Her father viciously abused her mother, and as the violence escalated Gayle was forced to witness such horrifying scenes as her father almost breaking her mother's back. Gayle thought she was finally safe after her parents’ divorce, but relief twisted to terror as she witnessed her father brutally murder her mother by hanging. Afterwards, Gayle was shuttled between foster families to psychiatric units in a state of ill health. Following one of many suicide attempts, she was attacked and raped by a male nurse in a psychiatric hospital. Through it all, Gayle survived and managed to make a better life for herself. This is her heartbreaking and inspiring story.