From once begging on the streets, to packing groceries at a supermarket and later moving on to become a receptionist and then legal secretary, Gelvandale author Schamelle Rulf has done it all.
Rulf even started a tough journey of entrepreneurship in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and started her own bakery.
Her career journey alone is an inspiring story to tell, yet it is not her only story.
The mother of three shares her story of surviving abuse at the hands of her late exhusband, in her book, I AM, and offers hope of healing and thriving to other abuse survivors.
The book is Rulf’s story of reclaiming her power and dignity, falling in love with herself and living her life to the fullest.
When she started writing the book in 2016, Rulf’s aim was to share the story of her strained relationship with her mother.
However, after the death of her ex-husband and alleged abuser two years ago, Rulf once again picked up her pen and continued her story.
Rulf said she met her exhusband when she was 22 and married him after only six months.
Though he started physically abusing her two weeks before their wedding, she was backed into a corner to go ahead with the wedding, she said.
“Two weeks before our wedding, he came home with a love bite. I told him I wasn’t going to marry a cheater and cancelled the wedding but I eventually went ahead with it because he threatened to hurt his mother whom I loved dearly.
“I felt I had no choice but to marry him because I would rather take the abuse than watch him hurt his frail mother.
“My wedding day was such a sad and gloomy day for me. The abuse only worsened from there,” Rulf said.
The author stayed in the marriage for six years before they called it quits.
She said people around them knew she was being physically abused because she often had bruises on her face, but she never spoke about it.
