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Going inside a strong heart
Ingrid Bergman once said that “Happiness lies in good health and a bad memory.” Yesterday, I met a young woman who has as much reason as anybody to wish for a bad memory. But she doesn’t, because she views sharing...
Ingrid Bergman once said that “Happiness lies in good health and a bad memory.”
Yesterday, I met a young woman who has as much reason as anybody to wish for a bad memory. But she doesn’t, because she views sharing her story as both a form of therapy and a way to help others.
When Grace Freeman was eight months old, civil war forced her family, which included her mother and three siblings, to flee their native Liberia and resettle in a camp in Ghana that was home to some 47,000 refugees.
Grace wanted to go to school but it wasn’t free and her family had no money to send her. So they struck up a deal with a local woman: Grace could live with her and go to school but, in return, would have to do all of the housework.
The 7-year-old left her entire family behind in the refugee camp to move in with this woman who promised her an education. It wasn’t too long after, however, that Grace discovered she essentially had been sold into slavery.
She never got to attend school and, instead, was awakened as early as 3 a.m. to do a list of chores that it would take a normal adult a week to complete. She was beaten regularly.
One day 11 years later, an 18-year-old Grace was outside working her way through a pile of laundry when she heard a voice intoning her name, telling her, “Grace, go inside.” Though she knew she risked a beating by leaving her work, the internal guidance was too strong to ignore.
She trusted her instincts and entered the house, only to find her United Nations identification card on the table, documents her captor had hidden years earlier in order to claim Grace was her daughter and keep her as a slave.
Grace snatched up the documents and ran to a neighbor’s house, begging the neighbor to hide them for her until she escaped. This act of bravery resulted in a beating that almost ended Grace’s life.
But it also marked a new beginning.
education and, hopefully, return to their communities to become leaders. As part of the program, all participants design a product or a service.
Grace, along with fellow Strongheart Lovetta, chose to create a piece of jewelry that is part self-expression, part fund-raiser.
The piece is a tiny replica of an old door that stood in the house where she was held captive for 11 years inscribed with the phrase that launched Grace to freedom, “Go Inside.” Off its hinges and leaning on the wall, the door was a place where Grace used to take refuge.
Today, its reproduction on a necklace is a reminder for her, and for anyone who wears the necklace, to look inside themselves for strength when the situation is bleak.
I had the opportunity on Monday to speak at length with the now 22-year-old Grace about her experiences. To say she is remarkable young woman does not do her justice. There are simply no words to describe a person like Grace, who endured more pain and suffering in a decade than most people will experience in a lifetime.
I had to ask her, though, if it ever gets old sharing her story, if she ever gets tired of telling the tale. The answer is yes, sometimes it is difficult. But that doesn’t mean she’s doesn’t keep it doing it, because she sees value in it for other young people around the globe who find themselves in similar situations.
“If the message is good,” Grace said, “You’ll always like to share that message.”
The pieces designed by Grace and Lovetta are on display at the designLab through today at the JA New York Winter Show, with their sales benefitting both the individual designers and the Strongheart program as a whole.
All members of the jewelry industry, from retailers to designers to wholesalers, also are being invited to become part of Strongheart’s new “Inner Circle of Guardians” program, being organized with the help of Beth Anne Bonanno.
To begin the program, Bonanno said they are designing a free widget retailers can place on their websites that will open up a second window displaying the Strongheart website. There, users can purchase jewelry and learn more about Grace, Lovetta or any of the other Strongheart fellows.
In exchange, the company will be listed on the site as being in the organization’s Inner Circle of Guardians.
For more information on becoming involved with The Strongheart Fellowship Program, contact Beth Anne at eab@elizabethannebonanno.com or call (646) 528-8299.
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