She was only fifteen when she ran away from home. All she knew was that she had to get away from her abusive father. By the end of the day, however, she was running for her life.
For anyone who saw her, Tracie was just another fifteen-year-old girl. What they weren’t aware of was the emotional and physical violence that permeated her home. Controlling and distrustful of other men, her father limited Tracie’s public life. He even covered the windows of their house with trash bags to block out any view of her mother and the continuous abuse that infested their lives.
Tracie, however, never stopped dreaming of a better life. Since she was eight, she wrote down every hope and dream trusting that the words would somehow rewrite her future. Every day after school, she sprinted to the local oil refinery and watched the flickering lights that were her beacons of promise.
When she was old enough, Tracie grabbed a bag with her belongings and ran. That night, as she camped in a forest, two men with ropes tried to kidnap her. Blazing through the woods and running for her life, she could feel the papers in her shoes that documented all her hopes and dreams. Barely escaping her abductors, frightened and shaken to the core, Tracie scrambled into a school for help the next morning.
For the first time, Tracie felt hopeful as the words in her shoes came to life. She was placed in foster care with a loving family and began a new and inspirational journey.
As an adult, Tracie questioned her father’s violent nature and did a DNA test hoping for answers. The results connected her to dozens of relatives she never knew existed. Questioning them for answers, she discovered many details about her family’s past including the murder of her great-grandfather.