Everyone has a story to tell and at least one book to write.  I have three having lived three different lives.  There are two books that I have hidden away in my drawer.  The first book is entitled Eight Weeks and thesecond, Eight Months.  This book of poetry is my third book and the only one that will see the light of day.  It is my witness as to how much God loves us, and that we are never alone even though we think we are.  He is there and has been all the time.
    
Eight Weeks is about how I survived growing up in spite of my parent’s poor parenting skills.  My father was an abusive alcoholic who also gambled.  He spent some time in jail because he was caught stealing money from the company he worked for in an attempt to cover his gambling debts.  There were times that my sister and I went around with holes in our shoes, having to place cardboard in the soles so our feet would not scrape the sidewalk.  My mother was a paranoid schizophrenic, also an alcoholic.
    
By the time I was seventeen, I used a razor blade to cut my hands and my arms up to my elbows in an attempt to cut the pain out of my life.  This happened on Christmas Day.  I was hospitalized for three months for severe depression.  When I got out of the hospital, I went to live with my Aunt Petey and Uncle Larry in Florida.  My aunt and uncle never had any children so living with them presented its own set of problems.  My uncle had no patience with a depressed teen, especially one who just wanted to sleep most of the time.
    
Eight Weeks covered the time span from the day my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer until the time he died.  I wrote the book for therapy and a way for me to heal…………………

So this is the beginning of my story.  The twenty-page testimony in my book gives a short synopsis of who I was, who I am, and who I am striving to be.  We are all a work in progress.  My testimony is quite compelling and believe me when I say,  I kept it as innocent as I could while still remaining honest.  People’s lives are very complicated and I don’t believe we really need to tell “all” as some national best sellers do.  My main objective is to convey to the reader from where I receive my poetry and from whom.  Writing this testimony was harder than anything I ever did.  It was very painful and I spent many sleepless nights with visions of horrible memories, pain of remorse for all my sins and wrong decisions, and sadness for all the wasted years of feeling lost and having a gnawing hole in the pit of my stomach, but mostly for not serving the Lord.

Excerpt from He Is The Word
By Estelle P. Shrum
Author’s Personal Testimony

If you are lost or feel alone turn to the last page of my book, page 177, and meet with Jesus.  Be blessed.  Estelle.