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Can two people with childhoods of great pain and emotional suffering find success, a happy marriage or a loving family?

The story of Bob and Betty sounds like one of those American sitcoms complete with loveable characters, crazy situations and canned laughter. Bob and Betty did become a happily married couple who raised a wonderful family. Success did come their way through Bob’s hard work over many years as a plasterer and Betty’s career as a teacher as well as her speculative land dealings and imaginative enterprises. But what makes this story truly remarkable is that their lives and careers were built on a childhood of great pain and emotional suffering.

When Betty was eight years old she looked on as two men held her mother down while a third gave her an injection and took her away in a van. Her mother was a schizophrenic and this was the first of many terrible incidents. Bob’s mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital where she was given shock treatment which so affected her memory she couldn’t remember her children. He was bundled off to an orphanage. Before they ever met Bob and Betty faced other horrors: sexual abuse, discrimination, prejudice and family dysfunction. In this profound and moving account Bob and Betty tell how they struggled to overcome such handicaps and create a great life together.