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.