The Power of Joy:
another story from Project Empower

Jeanette sobbed when she came off the stage with the other Liberty Manor women. “I feel . . . I feel . . . I feel . . . JOY for the first time in my life!”

In group the following week, Jeanette described the 2010 Cabaret, “Dream of the Possibilities,” as a turning point in her life. At a 2011 Cabaret planning meeting recently, she told her story again. As a child in New York, she performed in a number of locations including Carnegie Recital Hall, with no recognition from others, exacerbating her already low sense of herself. The Liberty Manor women received a standing ovation when they danced to We Are Family! last year—just what Jeanette needed after decades of addiction and self-revulsion.

“I never let myself feel the positive emotions. I was afraid of them. At the Cabaret, I allowed myself to feel them for the first time in my life and it changed my life!”

Jeanette is no longer at Liberty Manor. An Army veteran, she has a year clean after 26 times in treatment. She lives in her own apartment. Before she left to visit family in New York, Jeanette was anxious about how she would be received by some family members.  We kept in touch by phone. Her family received her with open arms and Jeanette experienced tremendous healing—“I am free! My past no longer holds me hostage.”

Jeanette plans to dance this year with the women at Liberty Manor as well—R-E-S-P-E-C-T, by Aretha Franklin and Josh Grobin’s, “You Lift Me Up.” Be sure to check out Jimmy’s tux—the donation secured by Jeanette for this year’s event.

Hope you’ll share the evening with us, April 30, 2011, First Baptist Church of Rochester, 6 to 9:30 am—great food and entertainment and empowerment for everyone in the room.