Featured Interview With Lydia Ola Taiwo
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Dr Lydia Taiwo. I am 58 years old, married with 6 adult children.
I live in the UK.
I am a survivor of horrific, grievous bodily harm and child abuse.
I have over sixty injuries and scars all over my body. There are six on my face and eight on my head which are visible to the naked eye, all at the hands of my parents, most especially my mother.
I have been very resilient over the years, carrying the wounds, the pain and heartache, but through it all, I have been able to forgive her parents and move on with her life.
I don’t consider myself a victim but a victor. My faith in God has played a major role in my recovery from abuse. ‘Having suffered abuse doesn’t mean you have to be an abuser yourself’ is my motto.
Many lives have been damaged and broken as a result of child abuse. Many have, sadly, even lost their lives. I pray that this book will help millions of people all over the world, to rise up from broken and shine again.
For many years I couldn’t live my life until I forgave my parents.
Part of my therapy was to write my story to get the pain out of my head and body.
The book was published in series.
Unfortunately due to lies told to my siblings, a disclosure was made to the police. This led to a police investigation, because my parents denied the abuse.
The case went to court in 2018 and both parents were convicted of the crime.
The trauma I was put through put me in a very bad dark place.
I then prayed to God to help me to write the last part of my story of abuse, to close the chapter.
While writing I was also going through support and I felt it was important to add the recovery part in the book also, so that the book could help other people.
So glad that it has helped bring healing to people, hence why the book is called: A Broken Childhood: How to Overcome Abuse: A Recovery Guide. Published in 2019.
As part of my recovery from PTSD, my therapy included creative writing and rewriting my story.
During therapy I was introduced to horses, and this really helped me.
I decided to use animals as characters in my future books for children.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I started writing 2007, I was 43 years old.
I became an author by accident. I started writing as part of my therapy and ended up a published author.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favourite genre is children’s fiction.
Julia Donaldson further inspired me writing children’s fiction.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
A Broken Childhood: How to Overcome Abuse: A Recovery Guide..
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49440009-a-broken-childhood-how-to-overcome-abuse
This is a memoir of my childhood and adulthood days before I got married.
When you have been abused, you do not know what love really means. All you know is abuse and terror.
When people do eventually show love, it is difficult to understand why.
Love does not make sense to an abused child. Did you know that?
Trust is another challenge; it is so hard to trust anybody. Having been abused myself, I found it very difficult to trust anybody, even my parents.
Not being believed was another concern – I was afraid that I would never be believed. This fear grew even more when I had to give evidence in court. Even the lawyers did not believe me until I exposed all the injuries on my head, having to remove my wig. There were over eight of them. It was shocking.
But there is hope for an abused victim. You can live again…
The whole book took about 12 plus years to complete, it was much easier to write after I decided to forgive my parents..
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