{"id":14206,"date":"2016-04-28T08:56:02","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T12:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=14206"},"modified":"2018-10-01T13:19:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:19:32","slug":"lost-and-found-susan-gammage-conquered-the-impossible-and-shes-smiling-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/lost-and-found-susan-gammage-conquered-the-impossible-and-shes-smiling-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost and found: Susan Gammage conquered the impossible… and she’s smiling again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, I will be profiling an extraordinary human being who lives in our community. If you know someone who is doing something interesting with their life, I want to hear about it. Send me an email at <\/strong><\/em>laura.maclean@doppleronline.ca<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Susan Gammage can\u2019t stop smiling. She can light up a room. It\u2019s an ear-to-ear grin and most of the time she can\u2019t even help it. It escapes out of nowhere and it\u2019s the greatest piece of evidence that she\u2019s truly happy. At long last.<\/p>\n

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Susan is surprisingly open about her horrific past, and that is exactly what makes her an inspiring and admirable person. She\u2019ll talk about anything. Aside from having an infectious grin, she happens to be a great conversationalist as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cCult,\u201d says Susan when I ask her to give me one word that comes to her mind when she thinks of her childhood. It\u2019s dead silence for a few seconds. I\u2019m not sure what to say. Then I tell her that\u2019s definitely not a typical answer when you ask someone to reflect on their childhood. Then she sighs before saying, \u201cIt was a horrific thing. I don\u2019t even really connect with my childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The circumstances surrounding her youth were tragic. She grew up in a small town in Alberta. Both of her parents were heavily involved in a cult. Susan was subjected to ritualistic abuse \u2013 physical, sexual and emotional. That was a daily aspect of her life. When her father raped her and she became pregnant with his child at around 13, a backwoods abortion was the solution. I didn\u2019t think I needed her to expand on what exactly that meant because I had a pretty good idea that it entailed heinous measures. She told me about how she watched her father murder her brother and how she longed to run away but couldn\u2019t out of fear that they would find her. She endured things no child should ever have to go through.<\/p>\n

The first 17 years of my life were absolute hell but from 18 to 55 it was worse. I was continuing to abuse myself with all these things I was putting in my hamster wheels. Flashbacks, anger, bitterness\u2026 It was eating away at me. I had to learn how to forgive. There\u2019s been so much healing since then and forgiveness of my parents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She tells me they have both passed away. I tell her I\u2019m not so sure I would be so forgiving. \u201cI have this sense that I\u2019m free now. I\u2019m not going to be hurt anymore. I\u2019m more interested in living in the present and trying to do some good in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t