Sacred Reola Johnson is the eldest child born to a young couple named Essie Mae and Abraham Johnson. Both still teenagers at the time of her birth. Essie and Abraham gave Sacred away to Abraham's sister, Jackie Lewis, who took the role of a mother in Sacred's life. As Sacred grew up, she came to love the life she had with her Aunt Jackie. Despite her alcoholism demostrated the kind of love that Sacred never received from her absent mother. There were, however other women who filled the role that her own mother failed to fulfill. But despite the love and attention she got from these women, Sacred was still laid to bare the pain caused by family members and the sexual abuse inflicted by different men. Sacred's story is of survival from the heartaches and abuse she suffered as a child, and failed and abusive relationships she had gotten into.