YOU are brave beyond any words we can write down and say what needs to be said. You are brave because you fight every day to survive. You are brave because you have reached out and said please help me. That you said please see that my life seems to have no place for a peaceful and joyful existance. You are brave because you know to survive is the only way to break the cycle of despair that we all have encountered.

Never let anyone tell you how to feel, only you know what is inside your soul. It takes no courage to die Jane, it takes courage to live and to somehow not let this pain destroy everything that is Jane. I know it is HARD, and I know that sometimes to just slip away from the things that try to destroy us is what we want desperately. It seems like the only way to end the war that is waged in our psyches.

However,you must survive because a world without the Janes and the Robertas, the Michelles, the Ferns, the Gayles, the Halfpints, etc., is a world that will never understand the pain and a world that will never see the beautiful spirits we all have. There will be no Sisters for our future Sisters who will also suffer at the hands of vicious and sadistic people. Sisters who will also one day be reaching out their hands and saying 'please help me to understand'. You must keep trying to survive Jane, because your life does have meaning.

I have been to edge many times, and I have had the courage many times to step over the edge, but I have got to believe that this isn't my life's destiny. Many of our Sisters have went over the edge and how sad it is that their stories has died along with them. Their pain has been forgotten, their loss of dignity is a faded memory.

You must survive Jane to let your pain one day not be the thing that rules your life. It will happen, but it will never go away. However, it does not have to destroy you to the point that others do not get to see your light and feel the beauty that only Jane possesses, so please be the brave and strong woman that you are. Keep one more Sister from going over the edge. Let Jane's light shine, even on the darkest of days we all have a light that will guide us to a feeling of peace and dignity.

Faith and Hope are yours. Grab them and let them help you to the end of your tunnel of despair and to find the beautiful light that is Jane.

Love,

Roberta