Speak Loud

My guest is Tracy Nelson, a medical assistant who has been on the front lines of COVID. She is a mom and empty nester in a new chapter of her life. Tracey talks about her past history of abuse, how she has changed her parenting style since healing and how she dealt with the trauma of losing her youngest child.Told to Keep Her Childhood Abuse a SecretAs a young child, her abuse started with her father. When she told her mother what had happened, her mother told her not to say anything and keep it a secret. Finally, however, she did report the abuse, and her father only received a year of mandated counseling.Being in and out of rehab from suicide attempts and eating disorders, Tracey wasn’t able to deal with the trauma and lack of consequence her father received for abusing her so severely. Then, at the age of 18, he abused her again. She moved out of her home and, at 24, realized she was pregnant. “My son saved my life,” she says, as she was drinking and doing drugs at the time. Her pregnancy gave her the chan