Why did you join the military and why are you so loyal to it?

How has one person made a difference in this case?

Brad Schimel, Assistant District Attorney, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, for committing to the case to the bitter end.  Without Brad, we would not have justice today and mom would continue to ruin her childrens lives.  On behalf of my brothers and sisters and me, the words thank you could never cover our gratitude.

Detective Ryan Park of the New Berlin Police Department for being so vigilant in his investigation and chasing every lead no matter how small.

My best friend Meg who has been my friend for life, good, bad and ugly, she never pitied me, she never looked down on me, she was just there and she saved my life in September, 1987.  Without you, I would not have had the strength to leave the home, thank you.

How can one person make a difference in other cases?

Who do you want to read this?

What do you want people to take away from this book?

If you walked away from this book with just one message, this is what it would be:  be passionate and vigilant in everything that you do.  No matter what the cause, no matter what job, always be vigilant in your actions.  Everyone in this world has a trauma that they live through and trials and tribulations that they face on a daily basis.  It is not these actions that make you the person you are supposed to be but rather your reaction to your individual issues.  If at any time that you feel sorry for yourself because you have challenges no matter what they are; whether it is being a single mom, being in the military, coming from an abused home, I implore you to spend one day in basic training.  What you will find is a plethora of stories that are so far worse than your own that you can not help but be humbled.  What you will find is a purpose so far greater than your own.  You become part of a collective team effort in which that team can only succeed if every individual puts forth effort.  You can make a difference in your life today and every day for the rest of your life.  You can choose to use your life traumas as a crutch for failure, or you can choose to use them as a catalyst for success.  No one cares about your life more than you do, and if you do not care to put forth the effort to make it the best life possible, then why should anyone else?  Being a pessimist or an optimistic is so incredibly contagious to those around you.  I have found over my life that at the times when I went into a poor me attitude, I never achieved happiness.  But when I consciously chose to look at life through my rose colored glasses and think that my positive attitude can change a few things along the way, I have found my success.  We cannot change the world in a day but each one of us has a ten meter radius that surrounds us where you can make a difference.  You can make a difference today if you choose to, the decision is up to you.  Today, this is my ten meter radius where I can directly affect my family.  It will be my lifes mission to be an advocate for success through hard work and determination.  I think this makes me a selfish leader because I get so much joy out of seeing others that I am responsible for achieve their individual successes.  It is like you are achieving that very same success and this is what drives me so passionately today.  I truly hope that I never change, and I will never want to change the way I grew up because it made me the person I am today and I am very happy with who I am.

How can the community get this book?

How can people follow this case and contact you personally?

What other projects have you taken on as a result of this 35 year case?

This page is under construction but I have what is completed thus far:

Can you give an overview of your story that the book is based on?

This is a story of psychological terror brought on by the hands of my mother.  I am the second oldest of 16 children and the stories I am about to describe relay what it was like to live under the terror and reign of our mother.  The abuse started about 35 years ago in 1970 and who knew there would be 16 direct victims and many other people affected by her manipulations when all was said and done.  Hind sight is truly 20/20 and I think if things were handled differently with the 1987 felony child abuse charges in Waukesha County, there would not be this tale to tell today in 2005.

         There are two distinct time periods in this story:  the 17 years prior to 1987 and the 18 years after 1987.  You will find parallels in both sections that I still can not believe today and I was part of the situation from the beginning and a catalyst for this coming to light.  What you will see is a very large break in the system but above all, the master manipulation that would rival the greatest minds.  By manipulating her children, the social workers, the lawyers, the prosecutors, mom got off with nothing in 1987 when she was facing 18 counts of felony and misdemeanor child abuse charges, $180,000 in fines and 30 years in prison.  Her ability to walk away from that without a scar only enabled her psychotic manipulating mind and that allowed mom to abuse again without fear for the next 18 years.  It is heartbreaking to live with the fact that these actions have been addressed in the past and she ended up inflicting the same thing on my brothers and sisters as soon as the Department of Social Services stepped out of the situation in the late 80s. 

Why did you decide to write this book?

I have two goals for writing this book, actually three, with the first being a healing process.  This story has been over three decades in the making and I feel this situation can be used to help those in similar situations.  I want folks to know that it only takes one vigilant person to make a difference in these cases, and someone reading this may become one of those vigilant people.  I am the oldest daughter and have seen this lifelong abuse and manipulation from mom grow in slow times and fast and feel compelled to share this story so that others may find solace and triumph from a similar tragedy that they may be facing. The second reason is that I want to be able to give any of the kids that want to go through college the opportunity.  I am quite confident that an education will have some pretty positive results on the kids.  The first step to recovery is self esteem and achieving an education will help them to achieve that possibility.  And the third reason and most important, as of today in June 2005, I am not fully convinced that mom will be held accountable to the level she deserves.  I would like at the very least to let people know the woman I have known my entire life and hopefully raise enough awareness that she never puts another child in harms way.  It is my opinion that even if she is convicted, she will play the martyr and say that she is only plea bargaining to spare the feelings of the children and then spend her years in prison plotting a slow and painful revenge to any person that has spoken against her.

         The stories listed here are told from my point of view with input from several of the public records that are available in Waukesha County.  I chose to use public records and my own personal memories mostly for my own protection and so that I would not have to ask my siblings to endure the memories that are brought out in a project like this.    It is hard to believe sometimes that we actually lived this lifestyle and in all honestly, I find that I block most of it in my day to day workings in life.  However, this past year, I have been plagued with haunted memories at the atrocities that my mother inflicted onto other people, to include her dead parents and her own children, for her personal gain and I continue to remain appalled at how this grown woman is able to walk the streets freely. My only hope is that when mom gets out of prison that she just moves away from us all and lives in her own little twisted world.  We all are affected so deeply today and I am not sure there will ever be a day that we will ever be healed.  But this is a start.

How did you decide what to include and what to leave out?

Is this story the reason you are so vocal against child abuse?