Tag - transformation

Samantha Jackel was raised in an Australian country town, the fourth child to alcoholic parents. Instead of finding love at home, she encountered manipulation and abuse.

My father was a violent, threatening man when he drank. He was well known to the police and often spent time ‘cooling off’ in their cells. He was a constant source of fear in our home and his repeated violent attacks on our family would lead my mother to relocate the children in cross country escapades. My father would always find us, my mother lived with the fear that he would some how not only find us but would destroy what she had worked hard for – the love of another.

While growing up my mother seemed to be constantly drunk. She was a paranoid, unstable, abusive and desperately manipulative woman who forced those around her to constantly feed her need for emotional support. She was an expert at playing emotional mind games, and I was often used as the bargaining pawn in dramatic, violent fights that would break out between her and my father and later my step father.

Starved of a husband’s love, she instead looked to me to help meet all her needs. – My Purple Pants

Samantha suffered a traumatic and abusive childhood, but even in the midst of the trauma, there were moments that held out a hope for the future.

As my guest on this week’s episode of my podcast, Bleeding Daylight, she shares the journey that brought her to wholeness and forgiveness.

Hear Samantha’s story on Bleeding Daylight wherever you listen to podcasts or click play on the audio player below.