“When you haven’t had enough to eat, when your electricity and heat are cut off, you’re not afraid when someone says life is going to be hard. The fear factor was minimised for me. I already knew fear. My dreams were bigger than the fear.“

Born and growing up in Rhode Island in poverty, with parents and grand and great grandparents who also lived in poverty, with her ancestors who were slaves, what was a chance for the little girl to run away, overcome trauma and succeed in life? Well, impossible or minor She was living with siblings in constant fear that her abusive father, an alcoholic, would have killed their mother.