Mama Bird

Mama Bird is a true story about the endurance and perseverance needed to survive an abusive marriage. When Susan found herself pregnant at the age of twenty-one, she did what she thought was the best thing and married her baby's father, Cain. Having grown up in Germany and then Manitoba, her final teen years were spent in New Brunswick after her father retired from the military. She believed it was important to have a stable home environment for her son. But instead, what she got was thirty-seven years of physical and emotional abuse that scarred both her and her children. Yet within this abusive environment, Susan did everything in her power to keep her children safe and even find moments of happiness. Like the mama bird in the story that she tells to her adopted daughter, she knows it is her job to nurture her children until they leave the nest. Several times when the abuse gets to be too much, she takes her children and leaves, but each time she returns defeated to the only life she has known as an adult. By sharing her personal experiences and innermost thoughts, Susan helps readers understand the psychological effects of abuse that keep an abused woman from leaving a relationship and the harm this does to her children. It takes almost four decades, but ultimately, Susan does break free from the bonds of her marriage and begins to finally find herself. Part of this journey is the promise she made to herself to tell her story. Mama Bird does this in the hopes that others experiencing abuse can find the courage to get help and find a new life.