As the Sycamore Grows

As the Sycamore Grows is a true story about Ginger, who escaped a padlocked cabin hidden in the woods to become a powerful voice for all victims; and Mike, who admitted abusing Ginger and would do it all again. God made women to serve, he says. It's their job. Think of the story as The Glass Castle way of living while Sleeping with the Enemy in the woods when the enemy totes a Bible and packs a .38. Mike slapped and shoved but isolation and money were his principal tools. Until he discovered the power of the Lord---as another way to abuse Ginger.

           Both Ginger and Mike speak, as do family and friends. Thus, Ginger is revealed as a flawed heroine who in teenage rebellion abandoned her baby boy. Mike ran away from his father's fists but later glimpsed himself in his father's coffin.

The story spins from south Texas to a sycamore tree in Tennessee with the couple spiraling downward into poverty---by Mike's choice. Threading through the story is loss: the alienation of families; a spiritual void; and the death of the boy Ginger once abandoned. This teenage boy's death becomes the wedge that sets Ginger free. She comes out of the woods and into the court system, a woman who couldn't speak for herself now speaking to jurists, lawmakers, and the public for victims of domestic violence. And for batterers. She leads a court-appointed program for abusers. Ginger believes everyone can change, even batterers, just as she changed.

           The story goes beyond domestic violence. When Ginger escaped the padlocked gate, she left behind hardship and abuse. Ahead stood hope, power and fulfillment. Her story is about courage and the resilience of the human spirit, especially when one can forgive, as she can.

           Georgia Public Broadcasting saw it as inspiring others to overcome whatever they feel limits them from reaching their potential, so they read the book over the air to the blind and handicapped. The Methodist Church in Alabama uses it in their Walk to Emmaus programs. Women's prisons in Alabama and Alaska and a homeless shelter in Golden, CO have used it as a learning tool. Social workers in Augusta, GA and other cities use it as a teaching tool.