Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine July 2019 | Page 106

Julie
shared with Mélange . . .
About her background
“I was born and raised in Seaforth, St. Thomas,
Jamaica, graduating from Morant Bay High School
in the mid-80s, then it was off to New York after
a brief foray into nursing school. I’m the fourth of
seven children (first girl). I’ve lived all over (maybe
a bit of a rolling stone): New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Australia, Austria and now Miami. I
am the proud mother of two grown infants - and
about to welcome my first grandchild.
About her deeply moving story and the
trigger that motivated her to document
her story in a book, Maybe God Was Busy
I’ve always been vocal about my experiences -
despite the lack of support or attempts to protect
me as a child being abused. And as ‘open’ with my
daughters, I was less than successful in shielding
them from the ravages of Child Sexual Abuse
(CSA). Having been in therapy for years, part of my
healing was to journal. So really, I never started
out to write a book, but when my eldest collapsed
AND tried to take her own life, it was the only
impetus I need to share my story in hopes of saving
someone else’s daughter, especially since I couldn’t
save mine. Jamaica is not alone in its view of sexual
abuse as being “just a little sex”, and telling my
story, our story, was/is my way of debunking that
approach, of showing the evil effects of sexual
abuse. By not broadcasting my story, I would
remain complicit in not only my abuse but in that