Bones Beneath the Prairie
A witness forged in fire—born from survival, silence, and the grace that refused to let me disappear.
This story is no longer just a book. It has become a lantern for women who are still walking through the dark, and the spark behind a movement to bring hidden daughters back into the light.
Why I Write
God asked me to bear witness—to speak the truth so clearly that a woman living in silence could hear her own heartbeat again.
For years I carried the quiet like a second skin, believing it was safer not to name what hurt, believing my story belonged to the shadows. But truth has its own insistence. It rises. It knocks. It asks to be spoken for the sake of the one who cannot speak yet.
I did not write to be brave. I wrote because someone out there needed a light in her hands before she lost herself for good.
This is why I write.
This is why the story matters.
This is why the Water Bearers exist.
Water Bearers Movement
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A book can speak what she cannot yet say.
A book can save her life.
No middleman.
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No overhead.
Just one gift sent straight into her darkness.
a Water Bearer is defined by courage.
“You matter. You are not lost. Here is truth. Here is light. Here is the beginning of your freedom.”
Every donor becomes a life-saver.
Every gift creates a fault line in the darkness.
one donor, one book, one life at a time.
The Book That Started the Movement
A Memoir of Narcissistic Abuse, Domestic Violence, and a Woman’s God-Led Return to Freedom
Bones Beneath the Prairie was never written to entertain—it was written because I could no longer stay silent.
It came out of the long ache of survival, out of the years when I had no language for what was happening to me, out of the quiet places where God kept nudging me to tell the truth so another woman would know she wasn’t losing her mind.
This book is the witness I never had when I was drowning—page after page of ground-level honesty, the kind that refuses to dress up trauma with tidy answers or polite Christian phrasing.
It shows what silence costs.
It shows what survival asks of a woman.
And it shows how God can gather the shards of a life and breathe something new through them.
Women read it and say, “I saw myself on those pages.”
They read it and whisper, “I’m not crazy… I’m not alone.”
They read it and understand—sometimes for the first time—that the way out begins with naming what really happened.
This story has become a lantern for thousands of women who are still in the dark.
And it is the heartbeat of the Water Bearers movement, because every woman who picks up this book and sees her own story reflected back begins to walk toward light.
That’s why the book matters.
Not because it’s mine.
But because when a survivor hears truth spoken without fear, something inside her begins to live again.
A Writer at Heart, A Witness by Calling
I grew up in a small West Texas town where silence was an inheritance—where the land was dry, the oil wells hummed, and little girls learned early to carry what hurt without asking for help. For decades I lived inside that quiet, until the truth in me began to rise and refused to stay buried any longer.
At seventy, I finally wrote Bones Beneath the Prairie—part survival, part reckoning, and wholly the story I needed when I had no language for what was happening to me. I wrote it so that another woman living in the shadows could hold a witness in her hands and see her own truth clearly for the first time.
Now I live by the sea in La Paz, Mexico, where the desert meets the water. I walk the shoreline with my husband, Ken, and our dogs, Miss G and Gus; I am learning Spanish one imperfect sentence at a time; most evenings we cook whatever the Sea of Cortez offers.
This is my first book, but it carries a lifetime.
May it reach the woman who needs light, language, and hope—may it meet her exactly where she is and remind her she is not invisible and never beyond rescue.
A Writer at Heart, A Witness by Calling
I grew up in a small West Texas town where silence was an inheritance—where the land was dry, the oil wells hummed, and little girls learned early to carry what hurt without asking for help. For decades I lived inside that quiet, until the truth in me began to rise and refused to stay buried any longer.
At seventy, I finally wrote Bones Beneath the Prairie—part survival, part reckoning, and wholly the story I needed when I had no language for what was happening to me. I wrote it so that another woman living in the shadows could hold a witness in her hands and see her own truth clearly for the first time.
Now I live by the sea in La Paz, Mexico, where the desert meets the water. I walk the shoreline with my husband, Ken, and our dogs, Miss G and Gus; I am learning Spanish one imperfect sentence at a time; most evenings we cook whatever the Sea of Cortez offers.
This is my first book, but it carries a lifetime.
May it reach the woman who needs light, language, and hope—may it meet her exactly where she is and remind her she is not invisible and never beyond rescue.
Fabulous Reviews from My Readers
When you set your story loose on the wind, you never quite know how it will land. These early readers sent their words back like rain on dry ground—grace, grit, and hope carried on the prairie air. Their voices are the first blessings to touch Bones Beneath the Prairie, and I’m humbled to share them with you here.
“Bones Beneath the Prairie.” It is an incredible smooth reading portrait of a difficult story. When I say portrait, it made me envision this more as an oil painting, slowly evolving, in sometimes muted, and other times vibrant colors. The manuscript’s words silently reach out from the page to penetrate the readers’ heart and soul, providing me a sensation of existence as a fourth dimensional viewer, desperately wanting to reach out and provide guidance and assistance, but left hopelessly unable to do so.
Powerful and beautifully written. I felt the author’s emotions so vividly—her fear, her hesitation, her peace. Reading this is like standing on the prairie, the wind brushing your face and threading through your hair, surrounded by the scent of grass, earth, and morning dew. The prose doesn’t just tell a story; it immerses you in it, until you are not only reading but also feeling and breathing it. I was left eager to know more, turning the pages quickly to discover what would unfold next.
★★★★★ “Inspiring and unforgettable!”
This book has everything except murder—but it keeps you on your toes enough that murder is a possibility.
It is a memoir that carries exquisite descriptions: the see-saw balance between children and parents’ relationships, the pain of being an adult with responsibility for your own children when you long to be a child again and let someone protect you, spiritual growth, loss of self, broken relationships, and forgiveness.
Her narrative voice is like an energizing friend over coffee, and the story holds together as a compelling whole. I was disappointed every night I had to set the book aside for sleep.
It relates to women of our times who would do anything to be chosen and loved—to have a real prince charming. Whether they were as bad as hers or not, whether we married them or only dated them, we all had a big mistake where we lost ourselves for a while.
Coming from Christian families, we also felt the pain and stigma of divorce, which kept many in unhappy situations. I know reading this book will save someone’s life.
For those who leave and return, she understands and feels your pain and hesitancy. Most of all, it is a story of becoming—and learning to love yourself.
Inspiring!
This is the story of a fighter who came back from a horrifying situation to go on to live an amazing life. What struck me is the courage and strength it must have taken not only to survive but to rebuild with such grace and determination. Her resilience shines through every word, reminding us that even in the darkest moments, hope can carry us.
This memoir of survival, Bones Beneath the Prairie painted such a vivid picture of being in an abusive marriage after being raised in a picture perfect small Texas town with a picture perfect family. If the imagery and emotion doesn’t strike a nerve and get you on the edge of your seat wanting to know more, the journey of self love and healing will.
The Witness on Substack
Subscribe to receive the pages I couldn’t fit into the book—the hidden stories, the darker corners, the truths that rose later.
Not every story found its place between the covers of Bones Beneath the Prairie. Some memories surfaced only after the writing was done; others lived too deep in the shadows to reveal themselves in time. These are the pages I share in The Witness—unpublished fragments, reckoning notes, recovered moments, and the behind-the-scenes truths I only speak here.
This is where the deeper story lives.
This is where the healing work continues.
This is where the quiet things find their voice.
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Let’s Stay Connected
I’d love to hear from you — whether you have a question, a thought about the book, or simply want to say hello. Drop me a note below, and I’ll write back.