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    No Fear, Just Faith: Letting Go of the Past
    No Fear, Just Faith: Letting Go of the Past
    No Fear, Just Faith: Letting Go of the Past
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    No Fear, Just Faith: Letting Go of the Past

    By MP Ballester

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    About this ebook

    Maxie grew up the daughter of immigrants who strongly believed in keeping familyespecially extended familyvery close. But in Maxies family the closeness only created a childhood that was filled with turmoil, abuse, betrayal, and finally abandonment.

    When Maxie was old enough, she educated herself and believed she had moved on with her life. She eventually had her own family, only to find herself facing an abuse and betrayal that was beyond what she faced as a child.

    Then one day something more awful than even Maxie could imagine happened that changed the course of her life forever.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBalboa Press
    Release dateMar 6, 2014
    ISBN9781452589824
    No Fear, Just Faith: Letting Go of the Past
    Author

    MP Ballester

    As a young child MP Ballester experienced the divorce of her parents, as well as, years of abuse and finally abandonment by her father. Her resiliency and love of reading kept her moving forward although her time with her father left her weary. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Haven in West Haven, Connecticut where she was honored to receive the Who’s Who Among College and University Students in America Award. Ironically, during her years in school she was also employed as a child care worker where she met many children whose suffering was similar to her own. Shortly after graduation she married a man who professed to love her and support her choice to stay home and start a family. However, within the first five years of marriage she experienced the birth of her two children, and her own divorce from her abusive relationship with her husband, as well as, the loss of their family home. She spent fifteen years raising her two children in her childhood home with the help of her mother. The continued abuse by her then ex-husband exhausted the strength and resiliency she carried with her from her childhood. Unable to cope, she fell to despair and lost both of her children to her ex-husband. Ultimately she arose again to regain her strength and her children. She acquired the wisdom to look back on her life and forgive the person who hurt her the most, her father. She let go of her past and freed herself from fear and regret. Today she lives every moment of each day to its fullest.

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      Book preview

      No Fear, Just Faith - MP Ballester

      Prologue

      26055.png

      M axie is a beautiful and loving girl who pierced the veil to this world as her family drama unfolded all around her. Too young to understand she was devastated by the betrayal of the only man who vowed to love and protect her. Alone with her thoughts Maxie soared through the words on the pages of the books she read as she listened for the screams that would signal the coming to life of her own horror novel.

      Chapter 1

      26055.png

      M y name is Maxie. I was nine years old when my mom and dad, Phillip and Marlena, bid on a little yellow ranch house in Hartford, Connecticut. My father especially liked the fact that it had a garage. My mother was an immigrant from Southern Spain. My father was the son of one of the first families of immigrants who came to America from the same village as my mother. The mayor of Hartford had just approved building a new highway which ran right through the lot where the yellow ranch house sat. Whoever bought the house had to move it immediately, at their expense, to make way for the highway. So, my parents hired a truck to move it onto a small lot they purchased on a cul-de-sac about fifteen miles from its original home. We all actually watched our new home come around the corner of our street and then get lifted off the truck and onto its new foundation. For whatever reason, the state never did build its highway through the old lot, but our house, on our cul-de-sac, was ours.

      The ranch house was beautiful and much bigger inside than it appeared from the outside. The front door opened into the living room with a brick fireplace on the far end and a large bay window. Straight ahead lay the dining area. To the left was the kitchen. To the right was the hallway leading to the bedrooms. My room was all the way down the hallway to the left directly across from my parent’s room. We had a full basement with the potential to be transformed into anything we wanted it to be. And as a surprise for me, in the far corner was a pink, two wheel bicycle with a white banana seat and a flowered basket.

      Our street was the nicest I’d ever seen. It was only 500 feet long with two little grassy circles on either end. There was never any traffic so I’d ride my bicycle from one circle to the other and back all day. In no time at all, I could ride standing up with my arms stretched out to my sides, using only my legs to steer. With the wind blowing through my long, blond hair it felt like I was flying.

      I was excited to start third grade in my new school which sat on top of a big, grassy hill that was great for snow sledding. My teacher, Ms. Spenser was nice and I made some friends. Rachael was in my class. She and her sister Gloria were my two best friends. We mostly played Chinese jump rope, a game called Plainsies-Clapsies that you play with a ball, and marbles. I had a coffee can full of all kinds of marbles that made a great sound when I shook it.

      Everything was wonderful until early one sunny Saturday morning when I heard my parents arguing. I couldn’t make out what they were saying until my mom, Marlena came down the hallway by my bedroom door. She said, Say goodbye to your daughter. I pretended to sleep when my dad, Phillip came into my room and sat on the edge of my twin bed. The sun crept in around the edges of the window shade and formed a halo around my pillow. I opened my eyes and looked at Phillip staring down at me.

      I’m going to auntie’s house, choked Phillip.

      I sprang up and asked, Can I come?

      Then he said, I’m not coming back.

      That was all he said. He stared at me stone faced. I didn’t know what to do so I slammed my face into my pillow and started crying. He pulled me up to his chest and hugged me for a moment. Then he let me go, got up off my bed and walked out of the room. I gasped for air but I couldn’t breathe. Marlena later told me I ran into the hallway and fainting when I saw him walk out the back door. That day changed my life forever.

      Chapter 2

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      P hillip and Marlena were once great together even though they grew up in two very different countries. Phillip grew up in Hartford with his mom Teresa, his dad Frank, an older sister Rosa and a permanent live in boarder that became known as uncle Pepe. Frank and Pepe were both hardworking factory workers happy to be paying their bills. Teresa stayed at home and took care of her two children which she spoiled every chance she got. They all lived on the first floor of a three family house behind Saint Mary’s Church and School, the Catholic school Phillip att ended.

      Phillip was a dashing young man with big, dark, deep set eyes. He wore his jet black hair like Elvis Presley. He wouldn’t let anyone touch it and checked it every time he passed a mirror. He loved the Green Bay Packers, the Boston Red Sox, Elvis, Mario Lanza a tenor who could hit one note above high C, and food. He’d grab a family size bag of potato chips, reach inside, pull out a whole fistful and shove them into his mouth until his cheeks puffed. He’d eat the whole bag in one night watching television. During football season, if they heard a big bang coming from the living room, it was Phillip flipping his chair backwards when the Packers scored a touchdown.

      Marlena was born and raised in a small Spanish village on the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. She grew up without plumbing or electricity or any of the other conveniences that people in America had. Her mother, Frances, cooked with clay pots in a large wood burning fireplace and they mostly lived off the land eating whichever fruits and vegetables were in season. They sewed their own clothes and washed them by hand with lye soap that they made. They had a well in the back for water, goats for milk, and chickens for eggs. Instead of going to school Marlena sewed for a tailor. Every Sunday she sang alto in the church choir. She was the youngest of five children with two brothers and two sisters.

      Marlena was a stunning young woman with platinum blond hair, blue eyes and milky white skin. She had a beautiful beaming smile that made you want to smile along with her and a shrilling laugh that bellowed all the way down the street. Her mother, Frances always knew where she was because she was always singing. She had a lovely voice that rode on a breeze throughout the village. Her family played in the band that marched through the streets of the village during the festivals which were Marlena’s favorite time of the year.

      Phillip was born shortly after his parents came to America. Back then it wasn’t unusual for people to marry for passage onto a ship. Although, once here they stayed married and dedicated to their families. Some families took in borders, like uncle Pepe, for extra money. The nicest thing was that most families who came here kept in contact and helped each other however they could. They created their own little community.

      Marlena had a special relationship with Antonio, her father. She looked up to him like no one ever again in her life. He was a gentle and intelligent man who taught her to read and write on a small blackboard at home. He built a carpenter shop on the first floor of their home to support his family. Frances was a midwife who delivered almost all the children in her village. Coffins were a main source of income for Antonio. So whenever there was a knock at the door in the middle of the night Antonio yelled out, Are they coming into the world or going out? that way they knew which one of them had to get out of bed.

      When Marlena’s eldest brother, John married he boarded a ship to America with his new bride, Lola. They settled in Hartford along with most of the other immigrants from Spain where they found work in factories and sent care packages back home as often as they could. About five years after their first son was born they had a daughter. It was then that John sent for Marlena who had just turned eighteen, to

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