I am Lonica Thom. My story is real. This story is what happened to me while I was in Guyana, South America, and the United States of America. In the year 2006, I was married to a man named John, an ex-Solider of the Guyana Defense Force, and I bore him three loving children. We were married for two years and a few months. He had an addiction to drugs, which was unknown at the beginning of our marriage; such addiction to drugs led him to become a thief, liar, abuser, and irresponsible towards his family.

I have suffered abuse in every manner at the hand of this man possible. After years of his abuse, I prayed constantly to God, and he did answer and let him leave. Oh, what such relief! I was no longer afraid to go home to my children, nor lie at work to my colleagues that I had fallen, or it was a blackout, and I did not see the chair in the way. As such, I became a single mother when I wanted more for my children. In 2015, I migrated to the United States of America with a friend who betrayed me, and then I feel into a man's arms, looking for security and somewhere to stay; we dated for a few months when I became pregnant. I told him he then chased me out of his home during a snowing night.

Again, life was unfair to me in the land of milk and honey. It couldn't get worse. I became a homeless pregnant woman, and I began to sleep on trains, bus stops, and parks. After I met a friend who told me about women's shelters, I went to different shelters through PATH.