After seeing the DVD “Searching for Angela Shelton” the author of the memoir Beyond the Tears: A True Survivor’s Story, Lynn C. Tolson, was inspired to take her book out-of-the-shadows to help break the silence. Here is a poem written by Lynn as a tribute to Angela:
Our stories were similar right from the start,
With fathers and brothers who ripped us apart.
Years are between us yet we are no different,
From child abuse, our emotions run rampant.
I’m too shy for words, and as old as her mother.
She’s young as my daughter, yet inspires like no other.
I wasted my life on drugs in self-blame,
Trying to run from the fear and the pain.
I kept my secrets in journals and books,
I wrote my story, but dared no one to look.
Angela took to the roads in search of her name;
She learned of others who felt just the same!
She knows what to say, she’s heard the truth,
From boys and girls, from aged and youth.
She pilots a mission and abused come on board,
There’s healing for one, one-million, and more.
She’s daring and caring and wise beyond years,
She’ll listen, she’ll answer, then she will share.
She travels and speaks, she won’t let you down,
In cities, at college, in every small town.
Her movement and mission gave momentum to mine,
My memoir was shelved, she said, “Go, Lynn, it’s time.”
She’s fun and she’s funny, outspoken, outrageous,
She is so brave, she makes me courageous.
She’s no victim, no stranger, no secret survivor,
She’s our hero, our shero, my sister, as thriver.
To Angela, Love and Light, Lynn
