And the Greatest of These Is Love: Based on a True Story

By Nevaeh Hope

Nelly is a beautiful person searching out her true meaning of life. Although she has many obstacles to overcome, she is determined to find out who she is. From her adolescence, she grew physically to be a beautiful young woman. It will take her a lifetime to believe it. She also finds out her family secret regarding mental illness. Damion, her brother, gave her and her family a hard life to live. Will they ever be able to rid themselves of Damions wrath before its too late?

The family also receives a lot of stress from Nellys mother. Nelly wants a better relationship with her mother and will try to pursue it. However, it is a difficult road. Does her mother change her wicked ways? Meanwhile, Jackie and Dennis are her siblings that are there to support Nelly along the way.

After Nellys educational years, she is forced to make many decisions pertaining to her lifetime of happiness with whom she will marry. Does she finally have the strength and courage to become the wife and mother she always dreamed of being? She proceeds to have three beautiful children, whom she loves dearly. Will she find out soon enough what is causing her relationships not to work before it is too late?

At last, will Nelly finally find her true meaning of life? Her course is clear, and her heart is true. Perhaps in the end, she will find peace in her choices.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503533707

Nevaeh Hope

My inspiration for this book was mostly the pain that Nelly endured in her life and it’s results on the people around her. I needed an outlet and decided to write this book to show what Nelly experienced. My hope and prayer is to help others deal with their own pain in their lives and relate to the obstacles that the character, Nelly, in this book needed to overcome which was based on the main illnesses in the book identified as Bi-polar and Schizophrenia. I wanted to better help my readers identify and understand that these illnesses can be overcome with treatment and counseling as necessary and realize that help is out there. I also wanted to identify the abuse, pain and interaction that come with these illnesses and others included in this book. Nelly had to find help for herself. But before she was diagnosed, she also had to deal with other peoples illnesses and abuse. Some of these illnesses and acts of abuse were different than her own which she had no control over. After she was diagnosed with her illness, she finally came to terms with the reality that she had to make changes in her life to help herself. Ultimately, she couldn’t change what others did to her, but she had the power to change herself so she wouldn’t pass the traits from her illnesses on to the next generation. She had the choice to receive medical and mental help for her illnesses. She chose to sacrifice herself by losing her husband and children in order to help herself. In doing so, she gained the respect of her ex-husband and children in the end. She was blessed to have their support. The moral to this story is that we cannot change others, but we can change ourselves and in doing so, we change others insight on situations at hand. Nelly couldn’t control the abuse she was receiving, but she could control herself with the proper counseling and medication for her own illnesses. In turn, that changes the lives of everyone. Sometimes the only solution can start and end with you. It took Nelly many years to discover this. I am hoping my readers will realize this by reading my book.

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Copyright © 2015 by Nevaeh Hope.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5035-3371-4

                eBook           978-1-5035-3370-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/15/2015

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Contents

The Early Years

Nelly’s Animal Friends

The Blind Adolescent

A New Beginning

The Wedding of Chad and Nelly

Happily Ever After?

Becoming a Soldier

The Wedding of Daniel and Nelly

The Mental Health Solution

Starting Over …

The Present …

Notes from the Author

Notes

To my father who helped to raise me and teach me that good always conquers evil

The Early Years

I want to tell you a story about my friend, Nelly. She was born in October in a small Kentucky hometown hospital. To this day, I still remember her telling me the story about how she woke up in the hospital, hanging upside down by one leg and screaming her lungs out as an infant. Some say that is impossible, but that is what she told me.

Her parents brought her home as the last of four children to be born into her household. She had brown eyes and eventually had brown hair two years later. Although everyone called her the baby, she didn’t like being called that. She tolerated it with much reserve. As far as being the baby, she learned it was just a term of endearment. She learned not to take it so personally, and she just wanted her family and friends to see she was growing up too. It was hard growing up with the term baby over your head. Sometimes in life, when you are given a nickname, you have to run with it until you outgrow it or get a better one. She had to outgrow this one.

She was very comparable to a small antique doll the family owned in the home. One time, she was actually mistaken to be the antique doll sitting in the rocking chair, when in fact, she was actually lying on the family couch in front of the big picture window the first summer after she was born. It was a laugh to the family and many of their friends how the antique doll could easily be mistaken for a human child. The doll was as lifelike as the infant child in appearance.

As she grew into her toddler years, she told me about one spring she could remember, lying on her back in her baby crib, suckling on her bottle. The window in the bedroom was open, and she could smell the fresh, clean breeze coming from the outdoors of summer. Nelly had a great memory. This was a nice, normal memory compared to others she would have to face in the future.

As she continued, her mind flooded with childhood memories; some good, and some very bad. Little did she know that while growing up, these memories would be very important when trying to answer future questions about her life. Most everyone grows up wondering, What is the purpose of life? What exactly is life about? She was no different than anyone else. But she wanted to know the answers to these questions and more. There were things about her life that weren’t normal, like other people. Some things just didn’t make sense. Life was very confusing. Only time would open the answers and solve so many questions. Nelly was in a hurry to grow up as most children are. She just didn’t realize how hard it was at the time to grow up in her household.

Her closest sibling was Dennis, her brother. He was two years older than her, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was a lanky tall thin boy. They would play toys and entertain each other as siblings do. They played games inside and outside with each other and with the few neighborhood children that were there. Dennis was a great sibling. Even though they were born a couple of years apart and fought sometimes as children do, they actually became closer as adults. When children fight, it doesn’t mean they will be that way as grown-ups. Some of the best relationships come from childhood fights.

Nelly was a remarkable child in that she was intelligent and witty. Telling jokes was a favorite pastime of hers. She liked to paint, draw, and play with dolls but was also unique. She picked up on a lot of things as a child. She was too smart for her own good. One good thing she did was idolize many child stars. There were many moments when she would dance and sing around the house, pretending to be just like them. She had hopes of growing up and being a singer or a dancer, like some children do. She rarely had practical dreams, like being a doctor or a nurse. None of that appealed to her at the time. Nelly liked the attention and always wanted to be in the limelight.

Nelly’s only sister, Jackie, with brown hair and brown eyes, cared for Nelly and Dennis. She was tall and slender, with a straightforward attitude. She was very patient and kind and also very responsible and brave. Dennis and Nelly looked up to Jackie, respected her, and would do what she asked of them faithfully. She was a mother figure, even though they had a mother and father. Jackie became more of a mother to them because their real mother had troubles of her own. Jackie guarded the younger siblings like a mother hen to her little chicks. Nelly learned responsibility from Jackie by just listening to her guidance. Jackie molded Dennis and Nelly into decent children.

Jackie was a very strong person. She had to be in order to survive without their mother. Jackie’s grades were As and Bs in school. She could sew, sketch with pastels, and photograph. These talents made Jackie very special. Her pastel sketching made her popular to some of their family friends who asked for her to make pictures for them.

The children’s father was the glue that kept the family together. Father had six mouths to feed, including himself. He never once complained, but everyone knew he held a very difficult burden. Though this burden was heavy-laden, he had the wisdom to remain calm, cool, and collected around Mother as she was difficult to handle. He went to work every day and came home every evening to his family. Father was an electrician. When the jobs were good, the family ate. When the jobs were scarce, the family still found a way to survive. Somehow, there was always food on the table. They never went hungry. Father’s faith was contagious to Nelly. It carried her through life.

Patience was Father’s biggest virtue. He never lost patience with anyone, especially Nelly. Of all the children, she was the apple of Father’s eye. He loved all his children, but she was the one child that brightened his day and cleared his mind once he set foot on the homestead. Nelly was Father’s breath of fresh air and warm ray of sunshine. She could do no wrong in Father’s eyes, or at least nothing that couldn’t be corrected.

Father and Nelly’s relationship was special, spiritual, and pure. Those two connected better than any of the other family members. Father and Nelly could almost read each other’s minds and finish each other’s sentences. Father was six foot, three inches tall, with brown hair and brown eyes. He was big built, handsome but very intimidating. He was most certainly the family protector. He always made Nelly feel safe, and she never felt intimidated by him.

Father’s wisdom, faith, and patience rubbed off on Nelly. She grew up watching him deal with the family and his own problems in a poetic way. She learned so much respect from him. He did spoil Nelly but not rottenly. They had a loving, healthy, respectful father-daughter relationship that gave Nelly a platform to spring her life from. Even though Father’s life was short-lived, Nelly got what she needed to learn to survive in a cold, cruel world.

On the other hand, Mother was a handful. Mother was about five foot, two inches tall, with an extremely bad attitude. She was truly bipolar but wasn’t diagnosed for years to come. She had blue eyes and brown hair with a tinge of gray. She claimed she was always very homely as a child, but she had some beauty outside and within when she chose to display it. She looked quite nice with makeup and a straightforward attitude. However, she was very