Life Is about Choices, Not Excuses - The Story of Ruther Youmans Tyson

LIFE IS ABOUT CHOICES, NOT EXCUSES is the message Ruther Youmans Tyson wishes to share with you. I remember the first time I made a decision to make the choice to own myself, giving myself the right to defend my life and integrity, a decision to act on my behalf and not make or accept excuses. I was two years old. I woke up to the noise of my Daddy fighting with my Mother. Even at age two, this did not seem normal to me, so I made a decision to do something. Our yard had hedges growing in front. I went into the yard, and as small as I was, I managed to break a switch off the hedges. I rushed over to my Daddy and Mother and began beating him with the broken hedge. It was a child's way of defending my mother, but I made the choice, at age two, to whip him and to stop him from hurting my mom.

As an Advocate for abused people of any ethnic group, for women and children for eighty years, which began with defending my mother when I was just two-years-old, I am pleased with what I have done because I chose to make choices and not excuses.

Ruther Youmans Tyson is the mother of seven children. She is the grandmother of twenty-two grandchildren and great-grandmother of twenty.In 1946 Ruther moved with her daughters to Jacksonville, Florida. When Ruther meets people and advocates for abused people, she connects and stays connected with them.