And That is What Fairytales Are Made Of . . .: A Handbook for Victims/Survivors of Domestic Violence (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781500660901)

Eliza Cove is a middle-aged, twice divorced, Survivor of Domestic Violence. Raised by a mother who worked as a nurse Eliza was encouraged to take a proactive approach to drug abuse, peer pressure and tolerance education. In high school she was the student supervisor of her schools peer education group. Afterward she spent several years continuing to work with the program, and several others similar to it. After her first bout with Domestic Violence she began a program wherein she would visit high school classrooms to educate them about the reality and dangers of domestic violence, not just within their family units, but amid the dating scene as well. That program shared the title of this book "And That is What Fairytales Are Made Of . . .", but motherhood brought it's own challenges and Eliza got swept up in the reality of raising several special needs children. As such she has acted not only as a child advocate for her own children, but has offered guidance and support to many other families as well. Eliza thinks the key to many problems is to be open to discussion, to challenge your own preconceptions, to try to live in the shoes of the other guy. If you don't how will you ever truly understand what they are going through? All too often these days people prejudge, not due to personal experience, but rather out of lack of familiarity and insecurity. If you can understand what is going on it lessens the need to be fearful. She has passed this need for inquiry and interjection on to her children whom never merely accept an opinion as truth, but rather push for more information and examples so that they themselves can ascertain the truth of the matter and what they choose to believe. A trait she feels is integral for society to continue in a positive fashion rather than a downward spiral of fear. Eliza truly believes that when our minds, hearts and souls are free to explore and broaden their horizons we are at our happiest.