Moving Toward the Light: A True Story of a Remarkable Friendship

By: Moore, Rita A.

This narrative is a true story based on letter exchanges and telephone conversations with two friends: Ruth and Callie.
Callie, at the time of this writing is a young inmate living in a large state correctional center for women. Ruth is a retired teacher educator. Neither have met in person but in these pages, each will tell the story of their friendship built on their lives of differences and some stark similarities. Their friendship is grounded in the letters they shared for over two years and continue to exchange.

Ruth and Callie shed a candid perspective on Callie's experience as an abused child moving into a traumatic adulthood and how prison reconfigured her personality and her life. Ruth's life took a different turn than Callie's but she shares early experiences of her own childhood traumas and decisions as an adult that took her down a different path. Ruth's open reactions to Callie's story suggest that the prison experiences captured in this book lack humanity and human decency. She looked beyond Callie's prison label and engaged with the caring, smart, articulate young woman hidden beneath the regulation orange. Their friendship provided thought-provoking moments and a remarkable bond. According to Callie, "Ruth's letters provide a lifeline for me as I strive to finish my sentence and be a healthy, successful woman."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CJ3VVW99
• ISBN13: 9798861530255
• Release Date: September 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 126 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"