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The Girl Left Behind : Healing Is Not a Straight Line

On January 9, 1986, my world shifted forever—I became a mother to a beautiful baby girl named Wendy.

In that moment, something in me awakened. Loving her gave my life new purpose. I wasn’t just living for myself anymore; I was living for her.

Still, I was moving through life in survival mode, skimming the surface of my pain.

I could see that wasn’t fair to her—I wanted to do better, to be better. Not because I consciously decided to change, but because something in me knew I had to. My body and mind were still wired for defense, shaped by the trauma of my childhood. I had learned to fight to stay afloat, and […]

Near Death Experience: Surviving My Stepmother’s Abuse: A Story of Pain, Silence, and Strength

The trauma inflicted by my stepmother echoed through every corner of my childhood. I was nine when my mother died. Two years later, George and I met our stepmother, Dotti, and our two half-brothers, Rick and Ron.

Ron was born the day after our mother died—October 15, 1962.

That date would take on deeper meaning in the years to come.

From the very beginning, Dotti made her resentment of us clear. Her abuse was constant and unrelenting.

She struck out physically—yanking my hair, slapping my face, locking me in closets, and denying me meals.

Her true cruelty lay in her emotional warfare: calculated, relentless, and all-consuming.

There was no respite, no safe moment. Her […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:19:15-06:00June 1st, 2025|Near Death Experiences, Spirituality, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Near Death Experience: The Ocean Took Me: My First Near-Death Experience as a Child – Series

It was 1959, under a sky dappled with clouds, when I spent a carefree afternoon at the beach with my aunt Dorothy, cousins, brother George, and mom.

The waves’ rhythm, the sand’s warmth, and the promise held by the distant horizon enchanted me. As George and I strolled along the shoreline, we searched for seashells and driftwood treasures. I glanced down, mesmerized by the frothy seafoam swirling around my ankles as the tide rolled in with quiet grace.

I closely watched the shoreline, hoping the waves might reveal a hidden treasure just for me. George lingered a few steps ahead, scanning the surf.

And then—everything changed.

A wall of water crashed […]

By Doré Frances|2025-10-04T13:42:17-06:00May 31st, 2025|Near Death Experiences, Spirituality, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Woodstock: Music, Mud, Myth, and Memory

Was Woodstock the spiritual spark of a generation’s awakening? Was it the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, or what?

Harmony and understanding? Trust and sympathy abounding?

Is the moon still in the seventh house?

Is Jupiter aligned with Mars?

Yet, in contrast, the world was anything but peaceful in 1968 when Hair: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical opened on Broadway. That same year saw American bombs and napalm falling on Vietnam, Richard Nixon’s rise to the presidency, and the tragic assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Inner-city neighborhoods across the country erupted in riots, revealing a nation deeply fractured.

Periods of crisis tend to spark visions of paradise.

The 1960s were fertile ground for New Age ideologies—some born of […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:19:26-06:00May 25th, 2025|Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think, Woodstock 1969 Collections|0 Comments

The Girl Left Behind : This Is My Life Now

This is my now. Now is the life I’m living—today, in this moment. Now holds the weight of three marriages, three divorces. Now is being a mother to a grown daughter. Now is the quiet shift into retirement, after decades spent as an advocate and educational consultant.
Now is living in Broomfield, Colorado—my first home, fully my own.
Now is coming to terms with a truth I once tried to outrun: that real trauma shaped my childhood, and left echoes in every corner of my life.
Now is waiting—for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department to release long-buried records.
Now is wondering what the final chapter will bring.

By Doré Frances|2026-07-30T14:31:07-06:00May 16th, 2025|The Girl Left Behind Collections, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Woodstock: The Soundtrack of a Generation: From Monterey to Woodstock – Series

Charles Fleischer is the originator of the quote “If you remember the ’60s, you really weren’t there”, which has been widely misattributed to various other celebrities. It was the music!

Like meditation or prayer, music can lift us beyond ourselves. The sounds of the ’60s and ’70s moved both body and spirit.

The Monterey International Pop Festival, held in June 1967, signaled the dawn of the “Summer of Love” and became a defining moment in the counterculture movement. It launched the American careers of Jimi Hendrix and The Who, introduced Janis Joplin’s raw power to the world, and brought soul legend Otis Redding to a broader audience. Monterey set the stage for Woodstock and helped transform […]

By Doré Frances|2025-10-04T13:43:59-06:00May 14th, 2025|The Sixties and Seventies Counterculture, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think, Woodstock 1969 Collections|0 Comments

The Girl Left Behind – Before and After

So much of my life feels like scattered fragments—moments and memories that never quite form a whole. It’s a painful kind of disconnection, one that can feel not only overwhelming but deeply unjust. My mother was taken from me, and I’ve had to live with the haunting question of whether my father was the one who tore her away. When she was gone, it felt like my heart forgot how to beat.

I waited—frozen—for my lungs to remember how to breathe. I was paralyzed, trapped in what felt like an unending nightmare.

I divide my life into three chapters to make sense of it all.

The First Chapter is my life as a little girl and the young woman […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-30T14:31:28-06:00May 9th, 2025|The Girl Left Behind Collections, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think|0 Comments

Woodstock: Road to Woodstock: A Teen’s Psychedelic Journey and Coming of Age

Flashback. It has been almost fifty-five years since Woodstock. Over 500,000 people came together on a 600-acre farm to celebrate peace and music in the shadow of the Vietnam War—an iconic event that redefined counterculture and reshaped rock history.

Music, Mud, and Freedom: My Cousin and I Hitchhiked Our Way Into the Wild Ride That Was Woodstock.

For many of us who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s, drugs weren’t just recreational—they were a doorway. In the right setting, with the right mindset, psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin could unlock profound experiences of awe, connection, empathy, and spiritual wonder.

As a baby boomer, I can say that some of the most formative insights of my […]

By Doré Frances|2026-07-26T12:19:52-06:00May 8th, 2025|The Sixties and Seventies Counterculture, Why Wisdom Is Harder Than You Think, Woodstock 1969 Collections|0 Comments