Unshattered Hope: When It All Seemed To Crumble, Hope Remained

By Valencia Lorissaint

"Unshattered Hope: When It All Seemed To Crumble Hope Remained" is the story a young woman who found the courage to overcome the many obstacles which nearly broke her. At the age of 22, Valencia's life could have easily gone to waste behind bars for something she never did. She found herself torn between her daughter's death and losing custody of her only son. The system felt more like a "guilty until proven innocent" to her. Valencia had the choice to sit back and watch her life crumbled or fight for what she believed. She chose to fight.

Despite how difficult it seemed to look beyond her circumstances, Valencia believed she would someday see the light at the end of her tunnel.

This book is dedicated to anyone who's ever experienced the pain of losing a child, who's ever been wrongfully judged, mistreated or felt like suicide was the only way out. Through sharing her story, Valencia hopes this book will help to shine some lights into others' darkest moments.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9780578800547

Book preview

Copyright © Valencia Lorissaint 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from the author.

For permission requests, contact XXX

ISBN 978-0-578-800053-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-0-578-80054-7 (eBook)

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Postscript

Chapter One

On December 16, 2009, I found myself in a crisis I never thought I could get out of; nor did I imagine ever being in such devastating situation. I lost everything meaningful to me, my daughter and son, my marriage, and part of me forever. There were moments where I wanted to give up, but for whatever purpose, God kept me. I didn’t know how I was going to go on without my kids. I prayed God would preserve my daughter’s life, but instead He called her home. While I was busy making my own plans, He had a different plan in mind. When my sister called to give me the terrible news of my daughter’s passing, I was terrified. I told myself my life is over, but suddenly this hymn came to mind and I started singing while weeping for hours. Through that hymn, God promised me that He would neither leave me nor forsake me. Though the roads were dark and slippery, and I didn’t know where to turn or how I’d be able to go on, God carried me through. I had seen things like what happened to me in the movies, but never did I stop to think I would someday be losing my kids and everything that mattered and made me who I was. My daughter passed away, but God gave me back my son and added another boy into my life.

Each time I think about my life and the many obstacles I have gone through, I realize that I should not be alive; but I’m still here. I don’t know God’s plan for my life, but I would imagine it’s not anything small to have gone through so many trials and tribulations all at once. From my teenage years until now, different people would always prophesize about my life. It seems that for these prophecies to be accomplished, I had to go through the school of life.

My name is Valencia; I was born and raised in Haiti. When I was 12, my family migrated to America to join my father who had been living here for at least half a decade, if not longer. Within months of being here, I learned a lesson that would later help me. Little did I know at the time that I would need that valuable lesson to defend myself against the wolves called the Criminal Justice System. A person was supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty; but my rude awakening made me realize it was not always so for some of us. It is who you know and not what you know. The system doesn’t give a damn about the innocent. Closing a case and locking away the innocent seems more appealing to them than to investigate truthfully.

At the age of 22, my life could have easily gone to waste behind bars for something I never did. My character as a young mother, wife, student, and hardworking employee did not matter to certain groups. They say when it rains it pours, but in my tribulations, I felt as though it was storming. I was hurt, angry, devastated, humiliated and lost without my kids. Rumors never stopped, and the sad part was, even relatives who knew nothing were making false accusations. Through it all, I kept wishing it was a dream I would somehow wake up from. Part of me kept saying it was over, but the other part kept telling me to fight. These wishful hopes were, in fact, the reality that I would soon have to face alone without either my children or husband by my side.

In the midst of my nightmares, the system, to me, felt more like a guilty until proven innocent type of system for minorities. I kept asking God what I did wrong to deserve that type of punishment. Why me? Why my kids? The more I asked, it seemed the more hopeless and bitter I was becoming. No one had the answers I was looking for; not doctors and certainly not the police who seemed more interested in creating their own version of what actually took place. I didn’t think it was possible to just take a person’s child away without any evidence of wrongdoing, but as my friend told me, This is America; the justice system does whatever they want.

I learned you don’t have to be guilty to get treated as such.

My story began on Memorial Day, 2007, when my father decided he had enough of me and no longer wanted me under his roof. I got kicked out for going to the movies and coming home at midnight. The real reason was because my boyfriend at the time, was in the military and despite my dad’s efforts to make me leave him, I wouldn’t at first. When I finally ended things, I got kicked out because he assumed, we were still together. At the time, it felt like my prayers were finally answered. I hated home so much that being thrown out didn’t seem to bother me much. I told myself that the constant fights between my parents, and the verbal and emotional abuse from my father had finally come to an end. As a teen, growing up in my parents’ home, I was depressed and angry each time I set foot into the house. To keep away from being there, I got involved in sports, volunteering and worked two different jobs.

One morning, after basketball practice, I had a Police Explorer event to attend, so I showered and changed in the locker room before I left to go to my event. My basketball coach was surprised when she noticed my Police Explorer uniform. That's because I was working two jobs, playing basketball, and volunteering as a Police Explorer, and also had the highest grades among my teammates. I won academic awards every year until I graduated from high school.

Since moving to Florida, my siblings and I were not allowed to leave the house, unless it involved going to church, work, school, or school