{"product_id":"2940012843845","title":"Without Faith","description":"Without Faith – A Motherless Child Redeemed by a Determined Spirit, is a bold, truthful, raw, humorous, yet innocent account through Reenie’s life beginning with her first memories at three years old.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe author, Doreen Birdsell was nicknamed Reenie. Doreen clung to her nickname like a badge of honor because her mother gave it to her and although her childhood was robbed no one could ever take away the name Reenie that would always be the remnant of her mother’s voice. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer mother, Faith, died after suffering the complications of a still born birth on March 18th 1953.  She left two daughters, Donna who was celebrating her fourth birthday and two-year-old Reenie. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWalter, Reenie and Donna’s father, wouldn’t raise the two girls without Faith. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the night of Walter’s drunken insistence to give his little girls away to the Catholic Charities a battle ensued among his four older sisters and their husbands.  Walter’s best friend and brother-in-law, Frank took Reenie from the chaotic scene in the crowded farm house kitchen.  In the darkness of the quiet night on the edge of the woods he tells Reenie a lie that God wants her to touch him and betrays her innocence by using her for his sexual pleasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAunt Hazel and Uncle Ted take Reenie and move to Ridegewood in Queens, NY.  Donna is taken to be raised by their Uncle Frank and Aunt Violet who live in Greewich, CT.\u003cbr\u003eEvery weekend the two children are reunited for a visit with their father at their original family home in Port Chester.\u003cbr\u003eFrank’s wife, Violet dies soon after they take Donna to live with them and now Frank becomes the weekend baby sitter for both girls. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile changing Reenie’s play clothes after a visit to Uncle Franks’s Aunt Hazel asks, “How did your underwear get on backwards?”\u003cbr\u003e“Uncle Frank did it.” \u003cbr\u003e“Why would he take off your underwear?”\u003cbr\u003e“To stick his thing in there,” Reenie says pointing between her legs.\u003cbr\u003eIn horrified disbelief Aunt Hazel says, “How could you say such a thing? You shouldn’t ever talk like that!  I don’t know how you could learn such a thing.”\u003cbr\u003eWhen Donna overhears the conversation she runs to tell Uncle Frank the bad thing that Reenie has done in disobeying him to never ‘tell’.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom a dirt road in Port Chester, NY to the concrete streets of Ridgewood in Queens, NY with her Aunt Hazel and Uncle Ted Reenie protects herself from neighborhood bullies and perpetrators that continue to reappear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a child who had been sexuality violated at such a young age Reenie was often pinpointed by pedophiles who were keenly aware of her sexuality and vulnerability.  She was often sexually approached by a neighbor, an adult cousin, camp counselor, strangers who seduced and abused her again and again.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe truth is finally discovered when at 7 years old Reenie carves a penis in the desk of her 2nd grade Catholic school classroom.  Aghast her nun rips off Reenie’s school tie and under harsh questioning she tries to explain that the carving is really a lighthouse.  The truth is finally revealed and an end is put to Uncle Frank further damaging the two girls.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe are taken on a ride through the rest of Reenie’s childhood, through her teenage years in the 60s.  Puppy love came to her through her best friend Linda who asked her to teach her to kiss.   Reenie falls in love and is more confused than ever. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrugs were an easy way out to dull the pain. Through a therapeutic community for drug addiction, methadone, a sugar daddy that got Reenie who we now call Doreen her first apartment in Manhattan and out of her Aunt and Uncle’s apartment across the river in Queens.  \u003cbr\u003eDoreen thought she could be free to have a relationship with Furman, a handsome 20 year old African American she had met when they were both in Odyssey House recovering from drug addiction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLittle did she know that life in the big city was far more dangerous for a young attractive woman who was emotionally and spiritually adrift.    \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe details of near death experiences and drunken exploits are interwoven with an underlying, knowing of the ever presence of God.","brand":"Don't Push Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079194034416,"sku":"2940012843845","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012843845_p0.jpg?v=1763573311","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012843845","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}