Through the Fire

In her inspirational memoir, Vivian D. Boatwright bares her soul and her difficult journey toward self-love.

Through the Fire begins with a heartbreaking account of abandonment as Vivian and her sisters are abandoned by their mother. Their father cannot care for four young girls alone, so the sisters live with extended family. Vivian is miserable and, as a young teen, acts out. She finds herself searching for love and attention in the arms and beds of neighborhood bad boys. Eventually, she moves back to New York to live with her father, but her relationships continue to spiral into the same abusive patterns. There she meets West, who will eventually become her husband. But he's no angel, and neither is Vivian. Drugs turn her into a person she doesn't even recognize. But before the birth of the youngest of her three children, Vivian decides to turn it all around. She gets clean, she gets stable, and she learns that she doesn't have to settle for anything.

Years later, Vivian and West reunite, and their family is complete. Even after the devastating loss of West and her youngest son, Qwan, Vivian finds peace and learns to shine in the darkness.