Here’s a true story that reads like a great American novel!  The main character is Francine Ward—a woman who has triumphed over one adversity after another!

When she was 14 years old, Francine Ward told me she was strung out on heroin and alcohol.

How did it happen?  “You know it’s not hard when you’ve come from a place hating yourself.  That’s how it was for me as a little kid.  It was easy for me to seek solace in drugs and alcohol because it made me feel ok.  Alcohol took me to places I would have never gone had I not been drunk or wasted.  On the other hand, I can tell you today I am clean and sober.  Who would have ever thought I came from such a dark place.”

Francine, the author of the nationally acclaimed best selling book “Esteemable Acts,” was at one time a homeless woman. “After dropping out of high school, I was living on the streets of New York City.  When you come into contact with a homeless person, you wonder how could somebody had gotten so low that’s where they are. But that’s where I found myself as a drug addict. I went place to place and bed to bed wanting someone to buy me drugs for just one more day.  But, that’s the past!  Today I can tell you I am a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and I don’t live on the streets anymore.”

At 21, Francine was a call girl paying lawyers lots of money to keep her out of jail.  “I think probably the single most horrifying experience in my life is when I became willing to support my drug habit by selling my body in exchange for money.  As I think back, that is probably the thing that pains me the most.  Now, I am so far away from it!  It  doesn’t have the same grip that had once consumed me.  Today I am a lawyer, a successful business woman, a loving wife most of the time and today I add newly published author to my list of credentials.”

If you’re going through tough times, Francine says it’s time to focus on the moment and put the remorse and regrets behind you. “We can pine over the past, and be depressed about we’ve done.  Yet, we cannot change what has happened no matter how hard we try.  What we can change is the present and the future.  Even with my own example---and all the years of making the wrong choices---it would torture me.  I just would go crazy thinking about how a horrible person I was.  As long as I was feeling that way, I kept behaving that way.  The further away I got from that person, the healthier I’ve become.”

So, what’s Francine’s advice to someone who is facing tough times?  “You can do something today that can help turn your life around.  It starts with one small baby step.  Be willing to face the fear and do something positive that puts you on the road to recovery.  Believe me---it can be done!”

Great advice from Francine Ward---a woman who is making a difference in the lives of many people with a story of hope, encouragement and faith!

 

 

More From Hot 104.7 - KKLS-FM