Carol Ann LaFleur

My name is Carol LaFleur. I am forty-six years old. I am the mother of six children and have been happily married to my husband Corky for ten years. I attend North Hennepin Community College, where I am working towards my associate’s degree in criminal justice.

Through my writing, I have been able to regain being who I am, a very strong and determined individual.

Writing is my Art of Recovery and yet I did not know until after years of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse including rape and molestation. After years of abuse, I was committed to a psychiatric hospital, as the physicians stated I was unstable. Again, the victim, I was punished and imprisoned behind a six-foot fence, and three locked doors. There was nothing to do in the hospital except dwell on the victimization. I then started to journal daily and started to relieve some of my stress and anxiety. In addition, started to be less of the victim, I started to write short pieces of poetry about my life, which allowed me to release deeply embedded wounds and demons than encompassed my life.

After being released from the hospital I continued to be the victim, as I could not bring myself to leave my own home, and was unable to do so for the next ten years. I never went to the store, park, or even my children’s functions. The only way to the doctor was to go by ambulance or late at night when no one was there but the staff.

In January 2006 after years of looking out of the window and wishing to touch the grass, smell fresh air and to feel safe and free. I left the victimization behind with the help of many. I slowly stopped being a victim and started being a survivor. I signed up for school and started classes at North Hennepin Community College where I met my writing tutor Juliana Boner. I came to trust in her and her in me, I showed her my writings and she encouraged me to continue.

I went back to work on my life story pieces, which I had started in October 1996 and did not believe in myself enough to complete, and in six pages culminated years of being a crime victim…
Today I am submitting “The Silent Words,” which I completed in early 2006. This story is a testament that although we are victims, yet we are strong. We have a choice to stay the victim or take back our lives, which is what I have accomplished.

My writing has allowed me to create my art in my words and has helped me to recover and regain control in my life. I also speak publicly sharing my story with many and along the way, I have been able to help other victims to become survivors and release their demons as well.