When the going gets tough, the tough get going. That could be the motto of Greater Sudbury area author Leslie Bradford.
The financial officer of a local company has chronicled her story in The Garden That Grew Her, a book published in January by Imagine This Media Studio in Chatham.
The book is the story of Bradford’s struggles in her domestic life — she called it domesticide.
Ten years ago, the 45-year-old woman began fighting her way through a difficult time in her life, dealing with a separation from her abusive husband of 15 years.
The break up was messy, she said.
“I was left with $25 in my pocket, no résumé and two young girls,” Bradford said. “I was a housewife with no job skills. My husband had just cleaned out our bank account and left us with nothing after we split up.”
Furthering her emotional turmoil were his threats to take the children with him.
She said she decided to take control of her life and forge a new life for herself and her children.
“I started by dropping the roles that had boxed me in,” she said. She dropped her view of herself as being a dependent wife and began searching for a job. Living in London at the time, the only job she could find was selling cars.
I was left with $25 in my pocket, no résumé and two young girls. I was a housewife with no job skills.
Leslie Bradford,
author
It took her a month to sell one car and she lived well below the poverty line in her first year of sales. But after four years, she was making a good salary, she said.
“I read everything I could about sales and I took sales courses offered through the company.” She moved up to be the third top salesperson on the lot by year three.
“The men on the lot were old school. I knew people were surfing the Internet and knew a lot about the cars. That was my edge.”
Bradford decided to move to a better paying job. She wanted to be able to afford to travel with her children to show them more of the world.
“In sales, the hours were terrible. So I approached a poorly performing car dealership and asked to learn financial management as a way of helping them out,” Bradford said.
“The dealership manager put me through tests. I scored the highest he had ever seen in creativity and mental energy. He gave me a chance.”
Once again, she read everything she could about the job, though she admitted she had trouble with math when she was in school.
“I had to learn (financial management) my own way and now I am fantastic at it.”
Bradford said she always had a dream of living on a lake, in peace and quiet. That became a reality last year.
“I now live in the French River area. I canoe, fish, hike, snowmobile, ski. I do it all.”
One of her daughters, now 17, is about to leave home, while the other, 21, is living in New Zealand.
Bradford has also written an animated short script, Nevaeh Can’t Wait, which is currently a finalist at the International Family Festival in Los Angeles. The awards will be handed out March 14. The script explains the emotional affects of cancer to children and is currently in production with Imagine This Media Studios.
She is also a frequent guest on national American radio shows, such as Montel Across America, Women’s Watch in Boston, and others. She is currently working on a short film, to be shot in the French River area. Aspiring actors can e-mail her at leslie@itmstudios for more information.
The author said she wrote the book to show others that it is possible to follow your dreams.
Her advice to other women is to never let what she calls collective authority — peers, parents or the media — “stop or discourage you from being the unique person you are.”
The book, which took seven months to write, is available by order from Chapters, at Bay Used Books on Elm Street and One More Book Store on Barrydowne Road.
According to Bradford, The Garden That Grew Her has already attracted readers from 212 cities in 31 countries, as far away as India and New Zealand.
For more on her latest projects visit www.thegardenthatgrewher.com
