Cass is a girl with poetry in her heart who survives a mother’s cruelty, molestation, an abusive marriage, deep depression and attempts at suicide. Her struggle to survive and to find a sense of family is a portrait of urban American life that gives new meaning to the word “home.”
In this autobiographical novel, interspersed with original poems, the author reaches out to other victims to give them the conviction that they, too, can survive.
First Attempt: Eight-year-old Cassandra attempts suicide but fails, but yearns for escape from turmoil.
Saying Good-bye: Cass's parents separate; she says goodbye to her father and her home. Leaving Canada for a new life in Chicago, she suffers her mother's cold indifference and her brother's cruelty.
Being Taunted: The torments of school in Chicago and the taunting of classmates daunt Cass, until she manages to stand up to the threats of a bully.
Cass confides to a schoolteacher an instance of sexual abuse, but her mother refuses to believe the story and focuses the blame on Cass.
Getting Married at Seventeen: Six months pregnant at seventeen, Cass marries, with no sense of joy. Going home to her new apartment, she is left alone by her husband, beginning a pattern of abandonment and neglect.
Divorcing Andrezej: Cass finds a way to attending college classes, but Andrezej remains in a drunken stupor. When he threatens to kill her, Cass finally moves out, after asking her father who agrees to take her in. Divorce proceedings drag on until Cass' lawyer manages to push her case through, and Cassandra, at twenty-one, is finally free again.
Meeting George: In her college cafeteria, Cass meets a polite and friendly fellow student who is interested in her, a pleasant interlude that "almost felt foreign."
Our Struggles: A year later, George and Cass endure the tense scene of his sister's wedding, then plan their own wedding, and finally legally marry.
George keeps a promise to officially adopt Andrew, despite the legal obstacles posed by Andrezej, and the new family looks forward to the birth of another child
About Cassandra Seamon
The author was born August 1st 1971 in Chicago. Her life has been a struggle of survival from the earliest days of childhood to present. It is the author's hope that others with similar life experiences will relate to her book finding strength in the knowledge that they are not alone.
Cass is a girl with poetry in her heart who survives a mother’s cruelty, molestation, an abusive marriage, deep depression and attempts at suicide. Her struggle to survive and to find a sense of family is a portrait of urban American life that gives new meaning to the word “home.”
The author was born August 1st 1971 in Chicago. Her life has been a struggle of survival from the earliest days of childhood to present. It is the author's hope that others with similar life experiences will relate to her book finding strength in the knowledge that they are not alone.