Each week we will honor a woman that has truly made a difference by her contributions, courage, love, and selflessness, despite facing insurmountable obstacles and adversities. Women honored will consist of women in politics, famous women, household names, and also women who you have never heard of, yet by their lives changed the world.

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Luella's Corner presents Women of Courage every Monday at 4:00 pm Eastern Standard time.

Call in number (347) 205-9063

We welcome back our marvelous Team who adds quality and expertise to Women of Courage.

AdlandPro's very own Women of Courage:

Carla Cash
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/245569/default.aspx

Pauline Raina           http://community.adlandpro.com/go/301079/default.aspx

Branka Babic  http://community.adlandpro.com/go/BrankaBabic/default.aspx

Our very own Man of Courage

Georgios Paraskevopoulos  http://community.adlandpro.com/go/Genesis/default.aspx

Our Sweethearts of Courage

Shirley Caron http://community.adlandpro.com/go/scaronpoet2005/default.aspx

Michael Caron        http://community.adlandpro.com/go/192260/default.aspx

This week's Woman of Courage was nominated by Carla Cash. 

Our Woman of Courage has overcome what would appear to be impossible obstacles.  We thank her for sharing her story with us and hope that through her sharing others will receive hope and healing.

I present to you

Rebecca Beasely

http://community.adlandpro.com/go/116634/default.aspx

"Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow."  ~Mary Anne Radmacher

I grew up with two loving parents in a warm cozy environment with all my needs met and not a care in the world.

This all ended when my dad died of a heart attack at the age of 40. I was forced from my overprotected environment into the real world and after recovering from the initial shock, I soon realized that if I was going to survive I was going to have to take drastic measures.

What I did was probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made. I quit high school and went to work at the only job I could get at my age. I became a waitress at a fast food restaraunt. I thought it was the right thing to do to help my mom pay the bills.

My next mistake was getting married at 18. I thought he would take care of me. Instead he became my worst nightmare.

After my separation and moving back to my mom and stepdad's, life didn't get much better. I worked at a nursing home and most of my money was used to help them pay the bills, so I decided that I would join the army reserves thinking that it would give me a nice education and possibly a career that would pay my way through life.

Before my training was over, I had the first of many nervous breakdowns. It was as if everything that had ever happened bad in my life all came to a head and burst. I totally lost control and was found wandering around the base. I woke up in a mental hospital with restraints on my hands and feet and had no idea how I got there.

I was sent home with an honorable/general discharge and on heavy doses of thorazine. I tried to go back to my regular nurse's aide job but couldn't stay awake through my shift and finally had to quit and apply for social security benefits.

For over 20 years I struggled with mental illness. Through the birth of my four children everything seemed to be in a haze and I missed out on a lot of things by simply not being there because of the heavy medication they had me on.

The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, then years went by without my even realizing how much time had passed. I was still me on the inside and I still had dreams and hopes that I felt like would never happen because of my condition. It was like being locked up in a dungeon with no window. And even with all this I was still functioning. I was in a gospel quartet and sang every week and was able to fight the medication enough to get by, but I still had to go back in the hospital time after time to get the meds adjusted.

One day a therapist friend of mine who knew me before I got sick told me that he could see that I still had a good mind and that I was able to pass all the tests they give to determine if you're mentally incompetent and I wasn't, but if he didn't know me any better he would swear I was retarded. He got with my doctor and they finally began weaning me off the medicine and I started to feel like a human being again. I started to emerge from a 20 year slumber.

I've been medication free for over 15 years now and other than an occassional depressive episode I haven't had any more problems.

God had a purpose for letting me go through this. I have no reason to be angry with him over it. What he gave me was an insight into the world of mental illness that few people ever know and live to tell about it. I understand what it feels like to hear voices that aren't there and I know what it's like to be in bondage and not know how to be free.

When you see someone on the street talking to themselves or acting strange, don't judge them as idiots or people who don't have any sense. They are usually very intelligent people who suffer from a chemical imbalance in their brain that makes them react differently than the rest of us. It's a physical problem that displays itself in a physical way. The brain is a very delicate organ and can be knocked off balance by the simplest things. Anyone can fall prey to mental illness. And it's not a flaw in someone's character and they're not any less of a person than anyone else. They just don't have the skills to realize what's happening to them and get the help they need.

I'm thankful to God for allowing me to go through this so that I can understand the reasons why it happens. Even doctors don't fully understand it but thanks to people who have gone through the earlier treatments and allowed them to study the reactions, they now have better drugs to treat the mentally ill that don't hurt as bad as they once did.

I'm a walking example of how some mental illnesses can be cured with the right intervention and a belief system that doesn't let you down.

I now understand that I will always be bipolar but I'm no longer in bondage to it. The truth has really made me free.

Rebecca Beasley

I nominated Becky for the Woman of Courage because she went through a hard life and overcame obstacles.  She also is a team leader in CMU7, as well as a professional net-worker. She knows a whole lot about relationship marketing. This goes to show that someone’s life can be in total “ ruin” and then turned around completely.

Thanks alot!!

Carla Cash