Jackie Strong Self: A True Story with Darkness and Light

By Jackie TuLight

For some people, trauma, abuse, and neglect lead to lives of despair and regret. But for Jackie, an early life filled with an uncaring family as well as physical and sexual assaults only makes her stronger - bringing out the inner self she calls "Jackie Strong Self."

With a matter-of-fact tone, Jackie relates the events of her life: growing up in the '50s and '60s in Milwaukee, fighting her way through college amid the sexual revolution, and entering a male-dominated workforce as a young woman. Jackie explores the political and cultural context in which she grew up. How does a lack of access to contraceptives and abortion affect a young woman's reality? Before employment laws banning discrimination based on sex, how did it feel to be one of the only females in a workplace?

But Jackie's memoir isn't just a historical jaunt. She writes about the psychological complexities of being unloved by her family, struggling with a head injury that left her with anger management troubles, and how the trauma of sexual assault affected her sense of self.

There's also lightness and hope, as Jackie explores a spiritual revelation she had as a young woman and discovers her capacity for forgiveness and understanding. Her message, through all the darkness and difficulty, is one of redemption and repair as she relates her many years of career success, happy marriage, and motherhood.

This book is for those who want to understand the tremendous journeys, growth, and understanding that life can bring - the difficult and the delightful.

Reedsy Discovery Review:
5 Stars, Must Read
By Sacha Fortune

I read this in one night, and I am still in shock days later - and absolutely horrified that it was a true story.

Told in a matter-of-fact tone that highlights events rather than emotions, we nevertheless feel every emotion that Jackie goes through. She was always treated as an outcast within her family because she was an "unplanned mistake" although her parents were married and already had a daughter. They had an agreement with her grandmother not to have any more children at the time, so her grandmother doted on her sister but ignored her completely.

Her family's discontent towards Jackie seemed to be her ambition, as she was hardworking and focused her energy on developing a career rather than simply settle to be just a wife and mother. This ambition seemed to irritate everyone around her. The abuse began as a very young child, and ranged from neglect - her father choosing to save her sister's life rather than try to save her - to outright disregard: her brother's attack that hit her between the eyes and almost killed her, but no one even noticed she was in a coma, and even later they did not seem concerned for her health or her education that was adversely impacted.

There were also deeply engrained layers of emotional abuse, with her mother even openly admitting to favoritism:

"I just love her more than I love you. I can't help it."

Alongside her experiences, the developing sociopolitical changes in women's reproductive rights and workplace discrimination policies shape Jackie's life, and we clearly see the ways these can drastically affect someone. From the employer who tried to fire her because she was trying to get pregnant to the horrific actions of her family members to conspire to get her pregnant via a rapist - these shocking real-life accounts leave an indelible impression on the reader.

Throughout all of this, it was Jackie's faith that kept her going and striving to succeed, after having an enlightening experience as a teenager. Thankfully she survived to tell the tale, and to use her experiences to uplift others.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BDXFMK72
• ISBN13: 9798849097817
• Release Date: September 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"