Memory Lane (2014-2016)

Mental Health

Confessionals

Abuse

Psychology

Memory Lane- Ana

I take a trip down Memory Lane with Sarah, who recalls her idyllic childhood visits to her Grandparent's English farm. She muses on the visceral sensory memories she still has. She also worries about the future. The farm may pass out of the family.....for good. 

Join us for this touching story :)

Memory Lane - Sarah

Pooja walks down memory lane. She recounts how, after a childhood in a restrictive, traditional household, she is growing up. Pooja is ready to make up for lost time, to make up for all the experiences she has missed-- fashion, rebelling, alcohol, sex. 

She is ready to take a 'bite' (literally) out of life, but what happens when dem boyz bite her back? Yes, that's right. Pooja was bitten by a boy on her "first time". Where did he bite her? Find out & listen!

After discussing the wild near-loss of her virginity, she goes further into her past, delving into subjects she had long kept quiet on. Pooja has a past riddled with restrictive tradition, double-standards, and endemic sexual assault....yet she is hopeful for the future. 

Join Pooja & I as we walk down 'Memory Lane' together!

Memory Lane -- Pooja

This episode of "Memory Lane": Virginia, an ex-co-worker of mine, shares two thrilling and tragic stories. In the first story, she witnessed the death of a young girl as she was crushed by a truck when a musick festival goes very, very wrong. In the second story, Virginia recounts how she herself almost died from eating a deadly food she didn't even know she was allergic to. 

2 stories, 1 episode of "Memory Lane". Join us!

Memory Lane -- Virginia

This week I take a trip down "Memory Lane" with my good friend Charlotte. At first she recounts the story of a childhood injury, but then the conversation takes a turn that neither of us expected.

When Charlotte was very young, she was severly injured during play. As a result, she was rushed to the hospital, all the while worrying that her father would blame her for the injury. Her entire body was damaged, and she was forced to become immobile, wrapped in a body cast for 9 months. Every month a doctor with a pizza cutter-like saw would come to her room to cut her out, and replace it with a new cast.

Fear of being blamed for the injury was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Charlotte's father. Fueled by his alcoholism, Charlotte grew up in an environment fraught with violence and addiction. At 13, she ran away for the first time, an attempt to escape her family dynamic that ended in vain.

Moving forward from those turbulent times to today, Charlotte reflects on her life, how her upbringing led to addiction and setting her onto a 'crooked' path. She still deals with the consequences of these early-life experiences to this day.

Our hope is that this episode of "Memory Lane" will help or inspire any child going through abuse or dealing with alcoholic parents. Charlotte was never told that it wasn't her fault, but now she knows enough to know that no child is responsible for the abuse that they go through. 

This is Charlotte's story.

Memory Lane -- Charlotte

The second year of "The Word" begins with an author interview. Joining me is Rajee Narinesingh, the author of "Beyond Face Value," released in the wake of her world-wide fame. 

In addition to discussing why she decided to write the book when she did, we discuss her darkest moments, and how she is able to muster the will to survive, despite violence, hate, and prejudice. 

"Beyond Face Value" is one of the best memoirs I have ever read, and certainly one of the most enjoyable books I have read this year! Rajee shares several fun anecdotes from her life, as well as reviewing events that occur in the book. 

Please join us for this very special edition of "The Word"!

The Word: Beyond Face Value (Audio)

Eliza is the latest person to share her story on "Memory Lane." Hers is a tale of poverty, mental illness, & neglect that ends with Eliza rising, phoenix-like out of her past into a productive present. 

Eliza outlines what it was like for her to grow up in a family that struggled with severe economic insecurity & scarcity of resources. Growing up, members of her family never seemed to notice her. "You didn't need me!" she was told by her mother. But, of course, Eliza needed support like any other child.

"In any other family, my issues would have risen to the top," Eliza says. However, because Eliza came from a family that had several mentally ill members, she wasn't recognized as a child that needed help. In the end, it wasn't until after she left college did anyone realize that in fact, Eliza was dealing with attention-deficit disorders. She talks about what prompted her to finally seek help, and finally responds to those who condemn social welfare programmes (of which she was a beneficiary of). 

Join us for this very impassioned & thoughtful "Memory Lane"

Memory Lane -- Eliza

Nevalyn says that Middle School, "Is the most dangerous part of anyone's life." 

While some remember those days fondly, Nevalyn has good reason for her belief. Toward the end of her Middle School days, a series of dramas, both at home & at school, changed her life forever. Expelled from the house of her biological father when she was barely a teenager, Nevalyn began what would be one of the hardest time in her life. 

Her story is not only almost-unbelievable, but something that no young teenager should ever face. All she wanted was attention & affection. Older teen boys provided this, but so did her best friend D. D, concerned about Nevalyn's associations with older men, tried to give her the life she had been wanting. 

This gesture, which may have started out with 'good' intentions, quickly became something else. Two years later, Nevalyn was a girl shattered. She was taking pills, hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, & tried to kill herself. D, her best friend, also tried to kill her. 

All attempts were unsuccessful, and Nevalyn is still alive today. She says her perspective on pretty much everything was altered from the events described in this interview. Today, she is a self-described "anti-social hermit." She has phobias of talking to people she can't see, on the telephone & the internet. She doesn't make as many friends, and is vehemently against online dating. 

She doesn't know why these things happened to her, & she says she may never fully understand. Nonetheless, her story is a testament to the will to survive, and the depravity that humans of any age will sink to if they feel they have to. 

This is Nevalyn's story.

Memory Lane - Nevalyn

On this episode of "Memory Lane" I speak to Ellie, a girl who opens up about her difficult father-daughter relationship. This relationship, plagued by abuse, addiction, & poor decision making, has in some senses defined her life. We start with a very vivid memory Ellie begins to explain, but cannot bring herself to finish. After she composes herself, and chooses a new memory we end up talking about her father once again.

Ellie recounts an injury her father sustained while under the influence and what her thoughts were at the time. As the conversation moves on, she connects this to her general thoughts about her father, memories of how her family was harmed by his addiction, & the various issues she now deals with.

Her father's volatile behaviour, and denigration of her & her mother left Ellie doubting herself and feeling like she deserved the abuse at times. She expressed that she has a strong dream, but does not know if she will be able to rise to accept the mantle of her destiny.

'They don't know how much pressure I am under,' she says about her family & neighbours, who are all expecting her to be 'perfect.' Ellie ruminates about how this pressure effects her, but also how she is different than her father. She reveals some of her worst fears, but also her father's worst features & beliefs. 

Ellie's is a story of abuse, conflict, addiction, faith, & ultimately worry in the face of an uncertain future. I am sure anybody could find something in common with this young girl, who has faced so much adversity in her life.

Memory Lane -- Ellie

In this very riveting edition of Memory Lane, I talk to Saffiyyah. While I have talked to many, & heard their stories of abuse, addiction, & derliction, few have a story that matches the amount of trauma as Saffiyyah did when she grew up with two cultists as parents.

Seeking power, or perhaps followers, her parents traveled from religious group to religious group, perverting Judaism into what critics called a "Christian Cult."  They didn't seem to succeed in this mission, but that didn't stop them from trying. Their lack of success in the cultic scene also did not stop them from trying to have complete domination over their children as well. Saffiyyah and her siblings suffered horribly -- from abuse, violence, neglect, & sexual predation. She even tried to kill both herself & her brother in an attempt to release them from a life of torment. All of this took place before the age of 10. 

As the reigns loosened, Saffiyyah was able to explore more of the outside world. Meeting friends & accessing the internet she realized the outside world was quite different than her family life of torment & hellishness. 

It wasn't long after receiving a laptop computer -- the key to her liberation -- that Saffiyyah finally decided to break from her family & their totalitarian rule. It was only then, once abandoned by her family at 17, that her life really began.

This is Saffiyyah's story

Memory Lane -- Saffiyya

Saffiya comes to Memory Lane to share the first two parts of her memoirs. In these riveting two stories, Saffiya details some of the only memories she has of childhood. "I tried to be linear," she says. But life issues in memoir often become so entangled as to be indistinguishable from one another -- The abuse, her psychopathic brother, being kicked out, almost being 'married off' by her parents at 4, communicating with spirits, eventually being kicked out all make an appearance here. and the extra-sensory abilities of Asexual individuals all make an appearance. 

These are the opening volleys in Saffiya's struggle to find her truth. In the next segments, to be titled "Child Rearing," she will explore how she was essentially left by her cultist, mentally-ill parents to raise her psychopathic brother whom, at one point, she had almost killed in a murder-suicide

Saffiya's is a truly extraordinary life, and she speaks from a place of security and strength. It took her years to get where she is today, and revealing these stories is invariably part of her recovery. 

Memory Lane -- Eliza

Jakob Kesava Moscow