My Name is Jerida and I feel I am qualified to be a member of PWOTW. I
have been married to my second husband for 27yrs. We have raised six
children together. Three from my first marriage, three from his.
They all live in our community with the exception of our youngest
daughter who lives in Boston.

As a child I was sexually abused by my sister until my mother found
out. She and my father spent the rest of their lives trying to
protect me from her. I repressed most of this until I was in a
serious accident (auto) in 1993. I started having dreams and slowly
almost everything has come back to me. My mother died afraid of my
sister. I didn't know why until now. I finally confronted her with
this only yesterday. It was ugly but I got threw it. I am a survivor
and I will now continue to heal. She has mentally abused me all my
life and she no longer has that hold on me. My family know of this
and they have stood by me. The only problem I have is with my
Daughter-in-law of my oldest son. She is very close to my sister and
she hates me as much as my sister does. I am ok with my son and we
keep close contact. I will be okay and will get through this.

I worked for Mental Health while my husband and I were raising our
children. It was a good job, draining at times but had good health
insuance and benifits that was needed. My husband is a CPA and owns
his own business. He is busy but always takes time for family. We
have had our problems throughout the years but have always managed to
work though them. He is great! I love him dearly.

I know own my own Boutique. It is something I have always wanted and
now as a grandmother of 17!! I am doing what I want. I love my shop
and love my ladies. It has also become a place of healing. We gather
there and share things over coffee and just talk. Its great. They
have been a great inspiration to me. This whole thing has been very
hard and we have had our good times and bad. But have managed somehow
too hang on.

Other than the Lord and my family, I love the fact that I am a Second
Degree Reiki Practitioner. This is the Japanese word for Healing
Energy. I love our Reiki Circles and I have been able to heal so many
wounds by learning to keep focused on the right path and trying very
hard to not be bitter about the bad times. It's hard but I love the
Reiki healing energy and I give the blessings to my God.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I have tried to be
brief. I will look forward to hearing from you.
Jerida Diar
Jaden33@aol.com

PS I am also proud to say I am half Apache Indian! Can't forget that!