"College was not what people in my family did," Brauer noted. “For me that was a different idea, a different future. Because of that woman who cracked open my mind, because of her one [phrase], it changed my life and, the lives of my children."
   Brauer was not allowed by her first husband to attend school or hold a job. Her husband was an alcoholic whose jealousy, possessiveness and violent physical and verbal abuse kept her at home.
    Nearly three weeks after graduating from Queen of Peace High School in Burbank, Brauer married her childhood sweetheart, she said. The stories of his abuse, lies and infidelity, and her expectations - good and bad –are chronicled throughout the book.
    Brauer's abusive husband nearly shot their children during an alcoholic spell and he became involved with another woman, which helped end the marriage. By 1974 she remarried, but her family still endured harassment and court battles from her ex.
    Brauer's book ends with the death of her ex-husband after he was hit by a car in 1984, a relief, she recounted.
    “I had survived, we all had, and in order to do that l had to stop being a victim and learn how to take control of my life,” reads an excerpt from the book.
“I had to stop wailing about the things that I couldn’t change and do something about the things that I could.
    Because of [my ex-husband], I had been forced to view the world differently, and in doing so, I had opened myself up to its beauty...No matter what life has to offer, it never gets the best of you, as long you just keep dancing." 
    Brauer never considered herself a writer; but she is a voracious reader, especially of Stephen King novels. She said she envied authors and was inspired to write her story for her sons and to encourage other women.