Ending the legacy of abuse.
Award-winning author, journalist and Buckhead resident Jennie Miller Helderman was researching an assignment about poverty in Alabama when she interviewed Ginger McNeil, a polished, court-appointed advocate for victim’s rights who resembled a New York lawyer with Southern grace and charm.
Little did Helderman imagine that McNeil had been a victim of both physical and emotional abuse, trapped for years in a 500-square foot cabin deep in the Tennessee woods by her husband, Mike, who used the Bible like a weapon and wielded a .38 handgun.
Thus, began Helderman’s five year odyssey to write McNeil’s story, As the Sycamore Grows, to shine a light on domestic violence and serve as a cautionary tale. The first edition was published in 2010, 10 years to the day after McNeil’s daring escape. It earned six literary awards and a stunning review by Pulitzer Prize-winning-author Rick Bragg. McNeil and Helderman made countless public appearances to talk about abuse prevention.
“After the dramatic increase in domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond, I wanted to re-focus on the issue,” says Helderman, who updated Sycamore and added a list of resources for victims. It was re-released in June 2023 by Atlanta-based Lucid House Publishing and earned a top rating from Kirkus Reviews, a designation received by only 10% of the books the magazine evaluates.
McNeil’s brutal honesty and chilling story reads more like fiction than fact. It’s enriched by Helderman’s interviews with more than two dozen friends and family members. She even inserted herself onto its pages. “I wanted to learn if any insight had come from reliving their experiences, and I had to be ‘there’ to tell their story,” she says.
One day, Helderman received a call from Mike who said, “If Ginger is going to tell her story, I want to tell mine.” To the author’s surprise, Mike readily admitted abusing McNeil and said he had no remorse and would do it again.
McNeil successfully escaped several times and returned to Mike because she wanted their sons to grow up with their father. Each time, she prayed he would live up to his promises to stop abusing her, but one day his threats became so violent that she feared for her life. Remembering the phone number for a woman’s shelter she had seen on a billboard, she gathered her sons and fled, never to return.
At the shelter, McNeil thrived and felt safe enough to get a job, apply for a Federal Pell Grant and land a scholarship from a community college. After graduation, she devoted her career to advocating for victims. “My story represents hope and proof that the legacy of abuse can be broken,” she says.
Because six out of 10 children of abusers become abusers, McNeil warns her sons that she will intervene and do whatever it takes, even having their children removed, if they become abusive to either their wives or children. “People can change,” she says. “I changed”.
As the Sycamore Grows is available on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and lucidhousepublishing.com.
