SYNOPSIS
This
is a story about an ordinary woman in often extraordinary
circumstances. This is a story about the birth and rebirth of--me,
Genna Sapia-Ruffin.
Born
in Baltimore as Genevieve into a broken family in the '40's, I
learned early to "roll with the punches". Abusive alcoholic
mother, absent father, sexual molestation from siblings—now I find
that maybe some things are not that extraordinary, sadly.
To
me, love became equal to pain. So when in June of 1964 I finally met
David Ruffin--"the love of my life"--I didn't recognize the
early signs that should have warned me that he was an abuser too. At
first it was "just" verbal, emotional and psychological.
But by the time our our ten-year-long relationship was coming to an
unavoidable end, the abuse had escalated to include extreme violence
toward both me and our son. It had reached a point of life or death.
Of course, David had also added smoking crack cocaine to his earlier
habits of just smoking pot and drinking. It was a typical pattern.
But I was too naive to know.
I
wasn't taken to church as a child. My mother's religion was
alcoholism. I was taught nothing about The Father, The Son or the
Holy Spirit. I never saw a Bible in my family home nor in my home
with David. I didn't know that was unusual. In fact, it never crossed
my mind at all.
David
mentioned nothing about any of this to me either. Coming from a
gospel-singing family with a so-called preacher for a father, he
knew. He knew, but he was content with (and protective of) his
backslidden lifestyle, I've concluded. Of course, his father used to
beat him and his siblings with an eight foot leather whip, so he was
understandably confused—and probably scared. Our relationship
taught me, among other things, that two wounded people do not equal
one healthy one! Only God can heal! Amen!
Time
passes. Some people live, some people die. Some people are born, some
people are born-again. David died in 1991 of a crack overdose. I
continued to breath hour after hour, day after day, month after
month, year after year. Then in 2003, I began to be pulled out of the
cult I'd been in for over thirty-three years and began to be pulled
to the lap of My Father God and the feet of Jesus Christ! In 2004, I
was re-born. I dumped that mess of the thing they called my life at
the foot of Jesus' cross. I hadn't done such a great job with it,
anyway! Now I know joy. In fact, God says I AM Joy!
Now
I know that the life of abuse I led was meant to be my platform—my
toolkit, so to speak. My experiences will be used by God to give some
words of encouragement to others with similar circumstances. So now,
I'm working to advance the Kingdom of God, thrilled and honored and
humbled to be doing so.
So,
that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
