April 30, 2025

Walking in Your Sunshine:
Discover the True Light of Forgiveness After Childhood Emotional Abuse
Lori Ann Beaucage
Unleash Your Story™ Publishing (2025)
ISBN: 979-8991696951

New Book Charts One Woman’s Efforts to Forgive Childhood Emotional Abuse

In Walking in Your Sunshine: Discover the True Light of Forgiveness After Childhood Emotional Abuse, Lori Ann Beaucage shares her journey of how she tried to forgive and understand the father who emotionally abused her. She came to the realization that the only way she could heal from the pain was to forgive, and she wanted to learn to forgive her father before he died. The journey was often tumultuous, but it eventually brought her peace. She has now written this book to help others who are struggling to forgive a loved one.

One important aspect of Lori Ann’s journey was her realization that her father had done the best he could with what he had. He had also been abused, by his father and other relatives. She never knew the details of the abuse—her father never told her—but she knew about it from her mom. She was also able to tell her father how he had made her feel as a child. He then explained why he had acted that way—often because he wanted to teach her right from wrong, but also because sometimes he had just lost his temper.

Lori Ann refused to give up on her father. Her mother was sweet and kind, so she could not stay away from her parents. She also wanted her children to know their grandfather, but when he would start to tease them the way he had teased her, she would leave, often in anger, to protect her children.

Part of what really resonated with me in reading Walking in Your Sunshine was that it’s also the story of an adult child having to care for her elderly parents. As difficult as her father was, when the time came, Lori Ann had her parents move into a separate house on property she and her husband owned. She then regularly looked after them. In time, her father became paranoid and argumentative to the point that friends and neighbors started to stay away, especially when he accused them of actions they had not done, including stealing from him.

Lori Ann’s father’s scariest behavior was his love of guns. He started to buy a plethora of them. When her husband tried to talk to the gun shop’s owners to get them to stop selling the guns, they learned the law said he could have the guns, so there was nothing they could do. Regardless, the police warned Lori Ann the situation could easily become violent.

I won’t share more of Lori Ann’s story, but I will say that her determination to forgive her father and be there for both her parents was heartfelt and at times a true sacrifice. But Lori Ann also knew it was the only way she could come to be at peace with her past and avoid feeling guilt after he died. In the end, he died before she finally forgave him, but she shares in this book the processes she used to finally reach that state of forgiveness and peace. She states, “Forgiving the loved ones who hurt us is the most powerful thing we can do.”

At the center of Lori Ann’s journey is her strong faith in God. She states, “I know our Lord had a hand in some of my decisions when I was caring for my parents. I learned to trust my gut instinct and not second-guess myself too much.” She shares biblical verses that helped her in her journey, and she provides journal prompts at the end of each chapter with questions to aid readers in reflecting upon what they read and then apply it to their own situations.

At the end of Walking in Your Sunshine, Lori Ann describes a fishing trip she and her father took together near the end of his life on the Big Black River in Maine near where he had grown up. She knew it was where her father loved to be, and she feels blessed they had that day canoeing together. Here she received insight into her father and his own struggle to deal with the pain of his past, including finding solace in nature.

Lori Ann’s ultimate hope is that her book will help others navigate a difficult relationship with a parent and see how to make amends. She states, “If your parents are already gone, you can know forgiving those who hurt you is the most validating and healing thing you can do for yourself.”

I felt for Lori Ann throughout the book, and I could relate to several of her experiences, especially when it came to caring for her elderly parents. I’m sure anyone who reads her story will be deeply moved, enlightened about the power of forgiveness, and ultimately, come to believe that if Lori Ann could care for her parents and forgive her father, they can also find reconciliation and peace.

For more information about Lori Ann Beaucage and Walking in Your Sunshine, visit www.WalkingInYourSunshine.com.

— Tyler R. Tichelaar, PhD and award-winning author of The Mysteries of Marquette