the Girl Who Flew Over Honeysuckle Hedge

“I am brave in ways I no longer thought possible as my resilient part continues to move me forward… I know true triumph of the human spirit.” At five-years-old, young Janet raised out of her body and flew over a honeysuckle hedge. It was this dreamlike experience offering her mind momentary respite from the dysfunction and abuse surrounding her that began her difficult life journey toward healing. In this riveting memoir, J. Lauren Sangster tells her personal story of surviving childhood sexual abuse, family dysfunction and violence. Trying to escape her past with a new identity as Lauren in New York, she discovers love and heartbreak with a man of Hungarian nobility and his whirlwind high society life in Newport, Rhode Island, then endures abuse and torture while held captive by a philatelist deep in the French Alps. Amid the darkness, and still haunted by childhood trauma, Lauren manages to survive and finds support with a circle of trusted friends back in New York… and even finds love again. J. Lauren Sangster’s memoir is a testament to remarkable resilience during her journey to cope and heal with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Complex PTSD). Writing with humility, compassion, and a sense of humor, she provides an unfiltered examination of how her traumatized mind works while finding joy in friends, love, music, silly riddles, a pet dachshund, and learning to live authentically as she discovers new ways to heal more deeply, thus offering the reader hope that they, too, may triumph over trauma.