Bold, Beautiful, & Unbroken is a recounting of the beauty and harshness of life as told by four individuals who have overcome tremendous challenges and obstacles on their journey to becoming some of our community caretakers. In each of us is a family novel, and every family has stories that we tell and those that we keep secret. Our intimate portrayals recount the (at-times) traumatic experiences we have lived, our journeys, and our impact we’ve had in the community. Our genetics, formative years, family, and family dynamics impact who we are, so we begin there. "My brothers, sisters and I were neglected. We didn’t have the needed time from our parents. When Mom got home, she was tired and just angry. We didn’t have water inside, so we used buckets to fill the tub. We all bathed in one tub of water and then lay down on pallets...All eight (of my brothers) slept on pallets until a kind neighbor down the field gave them bunk beds. They then slept four to a bed. Lying down at nighttime you could see the stars. That is the truth. Winters weren’t bad in Mississippi, but it rained a lot, and when it rained, a lot of times it rained on us." (Mary) "Mom was a motherless mother. In our family, history seemed to repeat itself. When I turned about 10 or 11, Mom started to just pull away from all sorts of duties and dumped them on me. It was my turn to be the head of the household. By the time I was thirteen I said, “Screw it. I’m out of here” and joined the seminary. It was a boarding school. It was a chance. It was paid for by the dioceses if I stayed in long enough to become a priest."..."I thought it was strange at the time and didn’t think any more about it because I never thought of a priest as being sexual..." (Mike) "Hearing at the age of nine that I wasn’t going to live past thirty created a dichotomy for me as I attended high school and college. “How dare you tell me how long I’m going to live” verses “How dare you tell me how I’m going to live with the time I have left"..."I should have known better. He seemed to adore me. He was charming. I think that’s one of the things I find interesting. He was good at ingratiating himself, so he could later manipulate and control." (Jan) "Invited at 7:30 for shock value, down the formal, rose lined path walked two notorious weather forecasters from our local tv station; women many of the men in Ross knew intimately. When they were seen standing under the banana trees at the entrance to the pool area, my best friend’s mother and wife of the local dentist gasped, took one step backwards, and fell in the pool, Brooks Brothers dress and all. By the end of the evening, Dad could be found in the water stark naked, playing his guitar on his surfboard. This, what mom called, “preposterous and indescribable”, continued to provide Mom a great escape from her personal reality – that of her marriage. " (Paige)