Touching Lives

In conclusion of this book, I would hope that the reader has enjoyed the opportunity of learning the various cultures and the similarities of all families.

Again, I would like to reiterate the fact that crime is a traumatic experience to both families of victims and the families of victims turned perpetrators.  It is a tragedy when a victim of a crime cannot express their pain due to the traumas of humility, fear, guilt and perhaps, other various psychological reasons.

Unfortunately, victims try to block out the ill treatment that they receive in their earlier years of life.  As I say they try to forget although it is always in the back of their minds.  They desperately seek out someone they feel they can trust.  If that isn't possible they revert to suicides or homicides.

In many cases they enter into relationships where they believe that they have found the right person and they ultimately disclose.  However, relationships are not always what they are cut out to be.  Some men and women when falling in love are sincere in their feelings.  On the other hand some are what they call unstable, inconsistent or flirtatious.  A heart is not to be tampered with especially when it has been broken, too many times before.

It is very difficult for a family to forgive if they have lost a loved one.  However, in reading “Touching Lives” I only hope that one can understand the two sides of inner pain and attempt to seek out more appropriate means of closure other than revenge.  Understanding the anger or pain of one who has lost a family member is however easier to accept than to perceive the vengefulness of a stranger.  Many people in society create more pain to grieving families just by the repetitious and ongoing accounts of the tragedies.  Furthermore, if the news catches the public's attention in a big way, the media will carry it on for months and maybe longer.

There are various organizations established around the country to assist prisoners and families of victims in the mediation process in order to get a clearer sense of all the unresolved questions and answers leading up to the fatality.  However, the media and the populace need to allow this to occur in order for a positive change in society.

Once a prisoner is sentenced to life without parole they have lost everything-- their families, their freedom, their esteem and all friends.  Once in prison they are punished more.  They become “caged animals” only to become more hardened in their hearts.  The majority of prisoners were once victims who finally vented all internal pain and anger out on another human being.  Unfortunately, they exploded at the wrong time, with the wrong person.  Had the person been the one who initially traumatized them it may have been somewhat justified.

The Legal System needs to be reformed in order for a peaceful society.  Placing human beings behind bars forever is not an appropriate solution nor is the death penalty.  Encouraging people in the communities to become involved and more appropriately overseeing of the prisons and its activities may result in a better future for all concerned.

Born Leonna Anne Abraham-Brandao, on January 20,1947, to a Lebanese and an African American couple in a small town on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.  She was the oldest girl of nine siblings and she graduated from the Barnstable School system in June of 1965.  She furthered her education years later, at the Fisher Jr. College, Cape Cod Community College and the University of Massachusetts.

A Former Social Worker of fourteen years with the State of Massachusetts, and whose studies included Community and Public Services, Ms. Abraham-Brandao utilized her services in the field of Social Work, revolving around families, children and adolescents.  She, further, spent years of devotion to the understanding of the rise and fall of problematic individuals, and approaches to the resolutions of conflict.  As a single-parent of one child, she was able to assist her son with the completion of his four year college education.  Following her own family tragedy, she was placed in a position, as many families, who suffered an overwhelming loss.  She subsequently, decided to travel in order to broaden her views on cultures and behaviors.  She attended a Mayan Indian School “Centro Maya De Idiomas “, in the mountains of Quetzeltenango, Guatemala, Central America, and studied the language and culture of the Mayan Indians.

Following her six month stay there, she traveled to EI Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, meeting new friends and regaining personal recognition of herself.  She ultimately, moved to Ghana, West Africa, where she founded the “New Vision Organization” which provided services to the medically ill individuals, in the regions of Ghana.

Leonna , ultimately, returned to the States in 1996, where she continued to work in

the Health Care Profession, and as an advocate for prison Reform.  In the year 2002, Leonna decided to put her writing skills to use in her Literary works on Prison Issues around the country.

She firmly believes that Prisoners can be saved through extensive rehabilitation, as in the past, with many successful releases.  It is said, that some of the best Counselors in the field, are those who have experienced the same set back, as those, whom they counsel, and they have been able to overcome their inner conflicts.

It is also the Author's hope to bring awareness to the Reader, of the need for changes within the Churches.  It has been a long overdue need that Churches throughout the World remain open to God’s children on a daily basis in order that the lost flock may enter when they are at their lowest peak and in Spiritual pain.