Newburgh - The cover alone is enough to get your attention.
Small in size and completely pink, it contains an image of a young woman, kneeling down crying. The title, Silent Victims, Innocent Tears, appears atop the image. Inside, lies 56 pages of subject matter that Newburgh resident, Virginia-Reid Scott, has been compelled to reveal for the past eight years. Most recently, that need reached a peak.
"This book is about abuse; it’s my personal story with some fiction mixed in," said Reid-Scott. "But it’s also the story of so many young women here in Newburgh, who go through both physical and emotional abuse, while remaining silent."
For Reid-Scott that abuse has not been confined to her personal past. Since moving to Newburgh over 25 years ago, she has heard a vast number of tales of abused women. Some of those victims have even been her daughter’s friends. Reid-Scott, who works full-time with disabled adults for the State of New York as well as with teenagers in her role as Youth Minister, spent many hours counseling these young women. Her book, which had been an "on-again, off-again work in progress" for several years, finally came to fruition while attempting to help these victims.
"I think you have to be ready to write something like this, especially something that keeps on surfacing," said Reid-Scott, "The main character in this book, a woman in her early 30’s, is looking back to her childhood; she is still being abused because she never got any help, so she is unable to love and is questioning if she can move on or ever feel again."
Reid-Scott is living testimony of the hope that exists. At 25 years of age, after dealing with abusive relationships, she left her Easter Shore, Virginia roots, enrolling at beauty school in White Plains. Here, she met her husband, the now Pastor of St. Marks Baptist Church, Christopher Scott. The duo tied the knot after nine months, relocating to Newburgh. Recently they celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary. Together they have six children and 19 grandchildren. Pieces of those "gifts" can be found in Reid-Scott’s book. For the longest time, the author, also an illustrator, was struggling to find an image for the book’s cover. Suddenly, one day, while watching her youngest daughter, 12-year-old "Gab," the inspiration came.
"I was just so struck by the way she was poised," recalled Reid-Scott. "So I copied that and added the tears."
"Gab" is not the only daughter who is embedded in the book. Reid-Scott dedicated its contents to all three of her girls, who include Shanna, age 25, and "Tan," age 18.
"I’ve seen so many of my girls’ friends go through so much, and tried to talk to them, but felt like they weren’t really hearing me; they just felt like there was nowhere for them to turn to make a change because they were so scared," pointed out Reid-Scott. "So I’m hoping my girls will read this book, open their eyes, and not go down the same path."
Only out for a couple of weeks, and limited to on-line purchase, the read has already met with rave reviews from two people in Reid-Scott’s close circle of friends, Sister Lee Hayward and Sister Kay Gray.
"Hayward loved it, and Gray cried because she could identify with everything in it," said Reid-Scott. "She said she felt like she was the person in the book, and said the crying was a good thing."
It’s that kind of connection and feeling that Gray-Scott is hopeful reading the book elicits. For the first time author, who is looking to draft a longer sequel, the subject matter is simply too crucial to ignore.
"Writing this book was not about the money," said Reid-Scott. "I hope that once a girl or a woman reads this, they will know they don’t have to tolerate any abuse, emotional or physical; they can speak out about it and no longer have to sit and cry."
Paperback copies of Silent Victims, Innocent Tears can are available at Amazon.com and Trafford.com.
