This woman reaches out. Laura Cowan

Laura Cowan survived life in a very abusive situation--it was physical as well as verbal and emotional--She sent us this...I think she has totally turned her life around and now she gets the respect she deserves, what can we learn from her? she sent this in to show us all that if she can turn things around in the worst of circumstances, so can you! Check out what she has to say:

I'm a volunteer at the Domestic Violence Child Advocacy Center of Greater Cleveland. I'm a community activist, and a domestic violence advocate and a survivor of domestic violence. I've appeared on channel 3, channel 5 and channel 19, I was nominated and won for my community work in domestic violence from the American Red Cross Hero's award. I survived one of the most notorious domestic violence abuse cases in recent California history. My encounter with the twisted logic of abuse began in 1995 outside a motel room in Riverside. That’s when a spate of bad luck led me into a bizarre, four-year odyssey of polygamy, torture and psychological trauma. The case, involving 19 victims, made national headlines, even CNN, earning the abuser seven life terms in prison. As outrageous as it was, my story fits a typical pattern. It’s a story of fear so intense it strips victims of everything but the will to survive. Now a speaker, counselor and forceful advocate for abused women I would like to bring awareness to Domestic Violence. The LA Times did a multimedia piece on my story. please click on the links below to view it. The video, multi-media piece and story that the LA Times did on me and my family, are all the links below (there are 3 parts): http://framework.latimes.com/2011/11/10/laura-cowan/ 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-laura-cowan-20111109,0,4263212.story