Memoir to My Children: How I Got Over

By Janet Harrison

Memoir To My Children: How I Got Over is a portrait of one woman's true story detailing her unwavering spirit of perseverance, known to be embedded in her by God. Janet Harrison can attest that life does indeed feature many challenges. Throughout a lifetime of struggles, her resilient faith in God would allow her to handle many of life's hardcore situations. As you will come to find within these pages, there are a great many of them. With the staunch believe that God never gives us more than we can handle, Janet persevered. Often she recites Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me. "

Knowing that she cannot do anything without the help of her maker, Jesus Christ, she carried with her great confidence that she would persevere through any and all of life's trials and tribulations. Special emphasize on the word "all" is very significant in that passage. "No matter the circumstances, I have that confidence in My God to strengthen me through them. So with each setback, I am so confident that those failures are never final. My God has the final say in my life."

Janet lives every day by the phrase "Faith It, Until You Make It." Yes, it took having a personal relationship with Jesus to conquer so many of the hurdles she confronted. And with her enduring faith, now in her golden age, she carries not a single worry about the future, because as Janet states, "I know My God's got Me."

We do hope this book will inspire you to put complete confidence in God, knowing that he will keep his promises. Oh Yes, he will take care of you! We do hope you will not only enjoy the read, but your faith in trusting God will be taken to a higher level.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798885408837

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Memoir to My Children

How I Got Over

Janet Harrison

ISBN 979-8-88540-882-0 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88540-883-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Janet Harrison

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

My Earliest Recollection

Determination and a Lifetime of Struggles

My Aspiration

Why Did I Stay in an Emotionally Abusive Marriage?

Dealing with My Mom's Health Issues and Mine at the Same Time

The Big Move with Trouble Lurking

Facing the Unknown

Allowing God to Take Full Control of My Life

How God Used the Broken Pieces of My Life to Make Me Whole

Failure Will Never Define Me

Perseverance in Faith

Conclusion

Acknowledgment

Vote of Thanks

Photographs

About the Author

Foreword

It was November 1990. All the students in the nursing program were sitting in the large auditorium, waiting to be assigned to their respective classrooms. Then, I heard the person next to me say May I borrow your Bible, I forgot mine. And that day began a thirty-year friendship. I have watched her overcome many challenges during those years with faith and perseverance. Whether taking care of her small children or fighting through an illness, Janet was determined to finish school and pursue her career to become a registered nurse. She had the support of many of her classmates as well as her husband. Throughout all of this, Janet always served the Lord and praised his name. It was her unshakeable faith that I admire the most. Her resilience was unbelievable; no matter the issues she was faced with, Janet continued to push through them.

She is an inspiration to me and many others with her spirit and unyielding faith in God. She continues to provide words of encouragement and spirituality. It was in part because of her that I was led to serve the Lord, my Savior Jesus Christ, which I, to this day, am thankful for. She is a great and supportive mother and an excellent role model to her family and friends. It is a blessing to know her, a child of God that didn't allow self-doubt and societal pressures to stop her from obtaining her goals. Her life has been built on God and trusting His word. It's truly inspiring to see her tackle something and make it a success. She is a woman with such a story to tell.

—Rose Clarke BSN, RNC

Preface

The Merriam- Webster Dictionary meaning of the word p erseverance means the quality that allows someone to continue trying to do something even though it is difficult.

Perseverance simply means continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition; the action or condition or an instance of preserving: steadfastness.

Throughout my lifetime, I can honestly say that the word perseverance describes everything about me. This memoir gives some of the various situations in which I persevered. I trust that as you read, you will be inspired to persevere in all your dreams and aspirations.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ; (Philippians 1:6 KJV)

And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9)

The key is to never give up on you as you trust God. Yes, faith it until you make it.

Chapter 1

My Earliest Recollection

Isearch way back in my memories, and much to my recollection, I recalled a very sad childhood; yes, I had a mother who had the role of a father too. God bless her heart. She did what was needed so that we—that is, my sister and I—were well-taken care of. I recalled the story that was told to me.

When I was a toddler, about age one year old, I was taken to a museum park. That very day, my life took a drastic turn for the worst. I was hospitalized for about one year. This illness left me with permanent bedsore scars running down my spine and a scar on my foot that was used for cutdown intravenous purposes. I was told that I even had to learn to walk again.

I don't recall much of my earlier childhood; I sometimes remember bits and pieces, most of which was very painful. I do believe that I was a very unhappy child. I remember singing the song: Lord, you know I feel the spirit, and settle in the promised land. I want to see my mother and my father.

I never seem to get past the word father without breaking down and crying. You see, I had a void in my heart. I couldn't recall what my father really looked like. I recalled praying a lot and hoping to have a father like my sister did. Her father treated me well, but still, I yearn to know the man who was my father. My mother would move us very often; this was based upon her circumstances at that time.

My youngest sister and I grew up in different places in Jamaica. My mother was an excellent cook, so she would move to the different bauxite industry sites to cook for the men. She would either take us with her or leave us at home with someone to care for us.

As I grew older, struggling through school, I started to develop an interest in nursing. By this time, my mother purchased a piece of property in a place called Green Bottom, found in the parish of Clarendon. Prior to this, we were living in my birth parish: Old Harbour Road, Saint Catherine.

After completing secondary school, as it was called (this is equivalent to high school here in the USA), I recalled my mom talking to me about sewing class, as was accustomed for girls to pursue as a career in my country. I cried and begged her not to send me to sewing class because I wanted to be a nurse. My mother enrolled me in May Pen High School, which was equivalent to college here in the USA. After the first year, I was told that I had to repeat the same grade; can you imagine how I felt? I started searching for a way to peruse the career I longed for, which was to become a nurse.

By this time, I had accepted the Lord as savior of my life and was very active in my church. After serving as the President of our small local youth group, I was later nominated as the president of the national Jamaican youth group. My first trip abroad was with the international youth conference. I traveled to Trinidad and Barbados. The experience was awesome. There I met young people from several Caribbean islands.

By this time, as a teenager, I fell in love with a young man who was not in the church. He grew up in the church, and his mother loved the Lord (bless her soul; may she rest in the Lord). I guess my eyes were so blinded from the truth of living holy unto the Lord. My friend had just gotten a job and had to leave to go abroad. I continued my quest on becoming a nurse.

I finally found a school for nurses in Kingston, which is the capital of Jamaica. This young man made a promise to help me with the tuition for this school. I knew that my mom did not have the funding for this school, so I was more than happy to accept this kind offer.

After I was near to completing this program, I found out that this was not a legal school in my country. Needless to say how upset I was about this. It was not too long that the relationship with this young man came to a halt. Needless to say how I was very hurt. The way how we ended our relationship was very painful for me.

He had visited Jamaica from his job abroad. Well, he had plans to come and see me the night before he left. As I usually do, I baked a fruit cake for him, but that night, he never showed up. That very night, the boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend who rejected him prior to our relationship—as I understand was because he was not gainfully employed—came complaining to my mother. According to him, he just found out that his girlfriend rekindled her relationship with my boyfriend. The plans that I thought we made for our future life came to a halt. Having these feelings of rejection, I thought love would never come my way again.

I recalled, in my most vulnerable time after my first relationship fell apart, I was still in the mourning process when this tall dark handsome young man came into my mother's food shop; it was not long before I started falling for him. I guess you could call it loved on the rebound.

By this time, I was offered a position to work with this new daycare that was in the making at our church headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica. At that time, I was also nominated as the president of