Just before Christmas last year, my friend Dolores Catania (Real Housewives of New Jersey fans will recognize her name) acquired for me something not many men are given: permission to enter and spend time in a women’s shelter in Paterson, New Jersey.
Inside the shelter, on a freezing early December afternoon, a day whose light was lost early to dark, I sat with some staff and residents, as Dolores unpacked bags of donated clothes she’d gathered for the women. A few kids, just babes really, were being exactly that, playing, whining, chatting in the background. With just one handheld mic, I taped an unusual, out-of-studio episode of my SiriusXM talk show (recent episodes are podcast here) as the women generously shared who they were, and what they lived to tell. It was a powerful experience I remain grateful to have been given.
The end result is not your typical radio, but it’s of my favourite shows I’ve ever done – keep reading and you’ll understand why.
A month later 2019 dawned, and Lifetime network began airing it’s riveting, shocking six-part documentary, Surviving R. Kelly. It captivated and appalled millions, and every talk show and entertainment news outlet covered the series and it’s lurid contents. I watched the whole thing as January became February – it was sad but incredible, must-see TV.
One reason for that was Drea Kelly. Though I knew nothing about the survivors of R. Kelly, my eye was drawn to Drea’s face instantly when – and despite – a whole sea of faces of survivors opened up in a sickeningly endless grid of women, on-screen, at the top of the series.
Drea, I found out quickly, is R. Kelly’s ex-wife. She has three children by him, and, as the documentary unfolded, she captivated me with her elegance, eloquence, strength and astonishing spirit.
If you saw Surviving R. Kelly, or shows like The View on which Drea appeared after the series aired, you know that she lived through unimaginable hell at the hands of her then-husband, and came thisclose to committing suicide to end the suffering of the heinous domestic violence she experienced with him.
Interviewing Drea for The Shaun Proulx Show two weeks ago – and before that, the women at the shelter in New Jersey Dolores took me to – has left me profoundly moved. I’m moved by the strength of these women to survive and overcome enormous struggle – struggle that makes the things I am working through in my life pale.
These women not only give me hope, are beacons of light, and most of all, they reinforce a truth I know in my core:
We each have within us what it takes to get through life’s toughest times. Just know that.. until you see that.
Many reading this right now are going through challenges that feel tougher than they are. Personally, right now I’m navigating what seems like too much at times. Problems problems problems; blah blah blah.
(It seems like too much at times.)
So this week, we’re sharing below both my kitchen table interview from the women’s shelter, and my conversation with Drea Kelly, with the intention of offering to you the same possibility to feel the hope, light, gratitude, and inspiration about overcoming and moving through challenge and struggle – that I did from these stars, and still do.
Shaun Proulx
GGN Founder & Publisher
PS: Speaking of stars, after taping at the women’s shelter, Dolores and I took her friend, a young man named Jeremiah, out for Burger King, his first meal in a day. Jeremiah was shy, but shared about his experience when he and his grandmother lived in a shelter:
