From Victim to Advocate

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My daughter. She saw me one day in the bathroom and she said, Mom, why aren't you looking at yourself in the mirror? And I said, Because I'm not beautiful. And she said, Yes, you are. You are always beautiful. Look at yourself because you're a queen.

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Lisa Anderson

Welcome to the Locala podcast, everybody. I'm Lisa Anderson, your host and publisher of Locala magazine. Today, we have Darnitha Johnson on the couch, and I'm super excited to have her with us. I think you're going to really enjoy this conversation today. I do want to remind you that if you enjoy our content to go ahead and hit that subscribe button and smash that like button, because that helps us spread the joy of all these wonderful conversations.

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Lisa Anderson

So let's go ahead and introduce Darnitha. Welcome.

Darnitha Johnson

Thank you.

Lisa Anderson

So you contacted me about being on this podcast, and I'm so glad you did.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes, I saw that it was something new up and coming and exciting. So I said, Let me jump on it.

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Lisa Anderson

Well, I'm so happy you did, because I've actually had people in the community say that I needed to interview you. And I think it's mostly because you are a part of the sexual assault. Yes. Yes. Center. And then you also have your own business called the Royal Queens. And I know I'm not remembering the whole title, but you go ahead.

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Lisa Anderson

Why don't you go ahead and talk about your business first? Let's just get people warmed up and who you are.

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Darnitha Johnson

Okay. Royal Queens Women Empowerment, Inc. were stemmed off of my domestic about domestic violence abuse. At first, I didn't love myself. I didn't care about anyone empowering me. I just didn't care about life anymore. And then one day I like, clicked on and I said, You know what? You need to start over. You need to find out who you are.

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Darnitha Johnson

And on top of that, my daughter, she saw me one day in the bathroom and she said, Mom, why aren't you looking at yourself in the mirror? And I said, Because I'm not beautiful. And she said, Yes, you are. You are always beautiful. Look at yourself because you're a queen. So from there, I just started saying, you know what?

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Darnitha Johnson

I'm gonna start empowering women with domestic violence or whatever they're going through in life. It's time for them to love their selves.

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Lisa Anderson

I love it. Where were you? We did a summit not that long ago. I needed you on that stage. Do you mind? I don't know. Let's actually. Let's go ahead and back up before we get into the heavy parts of this a little bit. Where do you come from? Are you originally from Ocala?

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes, I'm from Ocala.

Lisa Anderson

One of the unicorns?

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes, Originally, yes.

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Lisa Anderson

So what is it been like seeing the whole shift that's been happening in Ocala, especially the last few years?

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Darnitha Johnson

I know. It's like you started off with, like two little roads and now there's four lanes. There's overpopulation with cars and people. So it's like it's almost like a culture shock. Yeah. It's like, where do these people come from? What's it's like almost like an L.A. or L.A. So it's definitely grown and stuff.

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Lisa Anderson

Yeah. So did you ever go away for college and come back or did you stay here in the area the for the entire life?

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Darnitha Johnson

No, I went to Orlando, went to UCF, and then I came back because my mom ended up in a car accident. And from there I've been here. I've ventured to different cities, but I've always migrated back here.

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Lisa Anderson

Yeah, it kind of pulls people back in.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes, it does. It does. Got to know that. A little bit of a magnet there. There it is.

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Lisa Anderson

All right. Well, if you're comfortable, I'd kind of like to hear the your story about the domestic abuse, because, you know, you talk about empowering women. I think it's really good to know exactly what your story is and where you come from. So if you don't mind talking about that a little bit.

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Darnitha Johnson

No, I'm open book is starting years ago, I saw my mother go through domestic violence. And as a child, you would always say I would never go through that. No one's going to hit me later in life. It started to happen from high school, from the mental abuse, from boyfriends. Even friends would call me Big Bird olive oil.

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Darnitha Johnson

It was those because I was so skinny. Then, before children, so that would play a part on me as my self-esteem. It's like, Why? Why is everybody calling me that? Yes, I'm skinny. There's other skinny people. But that started with, like I said, the emotional and the mental. So from there, I would like downplay myself. I would not think I was pretty.

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Darnitha Johnson

I was either too skinny because there were other girls that were a little bit voluptuous and things like that that guys would look at. So from there, I just started like I dated a guy that I didn't even want to date for any much. And from there, after high school, we ended up moving in together. It became more verbal abuse and then it turned physical.

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Darnitha Johnson

So I ended up leaving, moved in with my mom and still saw the pattern there. But it was more so I would say verbal.

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Lisa Anderson

And then towards you or was it?

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Darnitha Johnson

It was was her, but then it would turn towards, you know, when she's upset with them, it would come towards me. And then I end up moving with my grandmother because I was adopted by her. But I went back to live with my mother trying to regain that relationship. From there. I used to work two parties and met a guy and said, You know what?

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Darnitha Johnson

It's time for me to grow up. I'm beautiful. I'm going to start dating. This guy ended up finding out this guy was toxic. Didn't know that this guy's mother was verbally abusive. An alcoholic ended up you know, at first he was that nice guy like they always are. They show that, Oh, I'm so nice. I love you. You're beautiful.

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Darnitha Johnson

Found out this guy was ending up doing cocaine. Did not know he was doing it. I just happened to see, like, little white residue. And I'm that type of person. That's something that I have never felt the need of. Of drinking or doing drugs. Because you see it in the African-American community, in different families. I was I came up when there was crack cocaine in a can and they were smoking it out of a can.

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Darnitha Johnson

So that was something I said I would never do. Yeah. When he would get high, he would become aggressive. But as a woman, I would always say, I'm going to stay with him. I'm going to change that person. But then you have his mother in the ear. When she got drunk, she was physically abusive verbally. So what he saw he mimic as well.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah. One day it became so bad that he had to start doing it. I just accepted it in like blocked it out. Oh, I can change him. He's going to change. And then one night he said I love you, but I don't want you. And from there I was like, You know, you try to make somebody want you.

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Darnitha Johnson

He choked me until I passed out. I finally came back, you know, to that Next morning I packed up a mattress on top of my car, drove back to my mother. It was like this. Like you said, an alcoholic. It's pulling you back. So I ended back up there for a short period of time. And then my friends, they used to hang out where Madison Street is.

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Darnitha Johnson

It used to be like a little hanging out there. We would hang out and I met my daughter's father, had no kids at that time in and up pregnant with my daughter because their left there, it was like a repetitive. I was continuously attracting the same thing.

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Lisa Anderson

Same thing. Well, I imagine that had a lot to do with your confidence, too, because if you hadn't had that back up yet.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah. You know your confidence, it will make you feel like that person makes you think you're the most beautiful person in the world, even though they are doing the verbal abuse, the physical abuse, the emotional. But you feel like you can change that person, but you can't. But you still stay. Think because they tell you that one time or you're beautiful.

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Lisa Anderson

Yeah, well, and a lot of times they're sneaky too.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes.

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Lisa Anderson

They push, they weight and they push their boundaries. They see how much they can get away with. And by the time they start doing the stuff that you as a person start really noticing in that relationship, you're kind of.

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Darnitha Johnson

Hooked. Yeah, it's a little bit too late there, you know, and you block it out. We tend to internalize. Yeah. And make excuses for them saying that, you know, maybe I did something. Maybe they're having a bad day and technically is not. You're the one this, you know, hindering yourself from going somewhere or hindering them to just move on when they want to.

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Darnitha Johnson

So at that point, I was going out with my friends. I was pregnant, but then I didn't know I was pregnant. So I was going out with my friends, driving back and forth to Gainesville. That's where I met my ex-husband.

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Darnitha Johnson

I did not like this guy. And I tell women if they're into and if it tells you something, you need to really listen. Because I did not like him. I was like, God, I always mess with guys that look good. He was nerdy with glasses. Maybe he was like, Could you hold my money? And I'm like, I hope this is not going to impress me.

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Darnitha Johnson

Okay, I'll hold your money, but you're going to get it back. Gave it back to me at the end of the night and he was like, Oh, can I call you again? Self-esteem plays a part on you. He's different. He's like glasses, nerdy. Okay. Something in me kept saying he is not good for you. You didn't pay attention.

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Darnitha Johnson

Once again, start showing, found out I was pregnant and things like that. Once I had my daughter, that's when the control started. My cousin came to visit me one day and the baby was in the room and I went down in the den because I was still living with my mom. And the baby started crying. So I told my cousin, I'm getting ready to go get the baby.

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Darnitha Johnson

Before I could go get the baby, he came in and said, Do you hear this such and such baby crying? Who is this? And we both my cousin, myself, we just pause and he was like, I'm our cousin. I don't care who you are, come get this baby. And I was like, It was embarrassing. Yeah. You know, And my cousin, he was just like, Go ahead and get the baby.

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Darnitha Johnson

I'm going to leave. And he was like, Well, don't come back here anymore because he actually didn't think it was my cousin. Oh, wow. So, yeah. So from there I saw the sign there, but I think the light did not come on because at this point, a single black woman with a child, you don't want them growing up without a father.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah. You know, And from there I stayed. He end up marrying me the year after my daughter was born. From there, that's when the cheating started. Then I gained so much weight when I said I put on at least about 200 and more pounds with my daughter, I was huge, so their self-esteem had went to 0 to 9.

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Darnitha Johnson

He would say, No one is ever going to want you, which are such and such and no one's going to love you like I love you. And it got worse from there. It really from being called Big Bird to olive oil with all of that internalized, I didn't care about myself. Yeah, you know, I didn't have my mom.

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Darnitha Johnson

She didn't give me that. You're beautiful. You're okay. You know, I didn't get that from anyone, so I didn't know. Yeah, So we stayed.

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Lisa Anderson

Was there isolation, too? Was he isolating me from.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes, he isolated me from my mom, my grandmother, because at that time we had moved out. We moved on his dad's property. It was like little houses in a row. So from there it was like his dad would fight. One day we would fight the next. So it was like an isolation thing. My mom didn't come see me.

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Darnitha Johnson

No one came and, you know, see me out there. So he was all I had between him and my daughter. But I went through the abuse. Then I end up one day going blind. So that's what really I don't know how I became blind. Wow. That was the second time I've lost my eyesight. The first time in high school.

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Darnitha Johnson

Wow. It's. And then the second time with him. So.

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Lisa Anderson

And it's so it's kind of like an overnight.

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Darnitha Johnson

Overnight. Is it just my eyes just started itching one day. And then I guess I kept rubbing and I just wrote the cornea apart all and Yeah. So I had to wear patches. Yeah. So he pretty much dumped me after his mom house. And from there you know, I could see like shadows, but not as much enough to kind of drive.

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Darnitha Johnson

And I, I was like, okay, are you coming to get me? You? No, my mom can watch you in the baby. He went back to the house. Intuition again. I knew something wasn't right. So I get in the car, I have blind, can't see anything but the glare from the lights and I drive out there to find where he's at.

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Darnitha Johnson

Oh, my.

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Lisa Anderson

Gosh. How did you make it there without an accident?

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Darnitha Johnson

He's a great guy. That was gracious God. So I ended up finding him and crazy as I was back there, chased him around the parking lot, you know.

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Lisa Anderson

And.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah, yeah. Mm. So that didn't make it any better. But I end up staying and staying. Got my eyesight back, went to the doctor. He told me, he said if you lose your eyesight again, for whatever reason it is I'm calling the police on. You didn't know why I was losing it, you know, and I think it stimulated from stress.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah. You know, so from there we ended up staying together over ten years, ended up having three other children, one that passed away at two months. I was still alone with that because he was on the road driving trucks so that my daughter had Trisomy 18, and that's genetic chromosome disease. And when she passed away, I was the only person there, so I was still alone.

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Lisa Anderson

Gosh.

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Darnitha Johnson

Oh, so.

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Lisa Anderson

Yeah, this event so difficult.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes.

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Lisa Anderson

I mean, my goodness. Yeah.

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Darnitha Johnson

Just to watch her child, you know, basically look at you. You have a priest come in and tell you you have to let her go, you know, because their life expectancy is not even beyond birth. But she lived to two months. So to be called that morning after dropping two other children off to school, you're driving down I-75 doing 9100 miles per hour.

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Darnitha Johnson

You walk in and they say you have to let her go because we're not going to resuscitate her. And I had to look at you have to look at your child at two months old and say, yes, okay. And when I said that she called it, she looked up at me, smile and coded. So to watch her child pass away and already go through mental abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, How was a wreck?

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah, you know.

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Lisa Anderson

How old were your other children at the time?

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Darnitha Johnson

Um, Ashley should have been is maybe five. And my son Dorian should have been, like, around three at that time. So.

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Lisa Anderson

And then you have to figure out how you're going to take care of the other children at the same time, huh?

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah. It was like I found strength from somewhere because I still did the mother motherly duties end up having a son after her. You know, he's my youngest and he was a little sickly. You know, I stemmed a lot of that from who in my ex-husband was in the military, because they were those three children were always sick.

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Darnitha Johnson

Something was always wrong with him. Yeah. From there, I just I said, you know what? I don't know what I'm going to do. You know, I just I walked around like a zombie each and every day, went through more mental abuse. When he wouldn't cut the grass, I would go out and cut the grass. I would have to come in and cook.

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Darnitha Johnson

I would be so tired that I end up dropping a part of hot grease on my foot. Had first degree burns or neither. Yeah, I would have to drive myself to the hospital because he wouldn't take me to get the arm. What do they call it? Pair paraffin on your leg. So it was more things I would have to do.

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Darnitha Johnson

I've experienced death so many times. You know, when I was with him, you know, between getting the tonsils taken out and the artery bursting, that was the only time that he actually took me to the hospital because I had blood gushing.

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Lisa Anderson

Oh, my gosh. Yes. But you like one physical thing after another?

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Darnitha Johnson

Yes.

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Lisa Anderson

Mostly related to stress.

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Darnitha Johnson

You think it's a lot of stress because the doctor told me once I took my tonsils out there, Oh, 99%. Nothing happens. Yeah, I just kept clearing my throat and I was like, Something's not right. And then he was in there sleeping and getting ready for work. And then the next thing I know, I'll cleared one time and I just saw blood gushing and I'm, like, shaking like I got to go and end up going in an emergency surgery.

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Darnitha Johnson

So it's been tragedy after tragedy. He ended up later in the year getting killed in front of my children. He was a murder, you know.

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Lisa Anderson

Oh, Darnitha.

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Darnitha Johnson

Well, at that time we had already separated. Yeah, I had a lifetime restraining order because he was stopped me every day. And his mom, his sister told me if you ever left my brother, I would help you. I would tell people don't believe everything somebody tells you, especially if they're related to that person. Because once you go or you change, they're going to turn on you because they're going to take their side of family.

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Darnitha Johnson

So when I left him, he ended up going to jail because he almost killed me. One night. He wanted me to. His aunt used to own a diner downtown, and it used to be on Friday nights, you know, women, men hanging out and everything. Something I didn't at that point when I had my daughter, I didn't want to go out anymore.

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Darnitha Johnson

Right. That motherly instinct with kids, I it kicked in because I wanted my kids to have their mother and love me. You know, like I, I, my mom love me. But I was adopted. So my grandmother was my mother. Yeah. So at that point, he wanted me to have a threesome. That's something I did not believe in. Yeah.

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Darnitha Johnson

So at that point, I'm finding out, okay, you're cheating again. So I said, Okay, I'm sleeping on the couch. My daughter asks children, they're going to ask you questions they don't know, you know, out of the mouth of babes. She said, Mom, why aren't you sleeping in a room with dad now? It's like, Oh, God. So once I did, I went in there and I got in the bed.

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Darnitha Johnson

I slept on the edge of the bed. To this day, I still sleep on the edge of the bed. He said, You're my wife, you're going to have sex with me. I said, No, I'm not. So at that point he straddled me, start beating me on my face, start beating me in my ribs and told me I'm going to kill you.

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Darnitha Johnson

And he said, And I'll kill the kids and they'll never find you guys. So he I think he thought that intimidated me. I didn't know that when he was trying to pry open my legs, that as women, because we give birth, but our legs are very strong. So I kind of like gripped and kept my legs closed. And that's what made the beatings more worse.

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Darnitha Johnson

And he held my mouth because he didn't want the kids to hear in the next room. So I'd run into the bathroom because I didn't want to leave the kids by theirselves. And I was in there taking a shower. I felt like a rape victim. Even though it wasn't penetrated. I felt it because it's like a strip me of my whole dignity.

00:19:10:16 - 00:19:36:22

Darnitha Johnson

And I think that was the turning point for me because he said, Oh, I'll never do it again. At that point, when I say I became a mummy, a zombie that was leading into New Year's Eve, going to church and went to a church with him, and I just sat there and I just rocked and I rocked. And they said, When midnight comes, hug the person that you love or someone I couldn't even touch and I couldn't even look at him.

00:19:36:22 - 00:19:56:22

Darnitha Johnson

I couldn't look at anyone. Mind you, the pastor knew what had been going on because that's the same pastor that counsel, but did nothing. So that next morning I already had started a new job and I went to the job and I had the scratches and bruises. And we had a meeting that morning and my boss's daughter was like, What's wrong with you?

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Darnitha Johnson

I was like, Nothing. Shut up to shut up. And she went into her mom, and when she came out, she said some choice words. She was like, Oh, no, I'm going to kill you because she knew something wasn't right about him. So she took me to the police department. That's where I had met down again. And from there, that's when my freedom began.

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Darnitha Johnson

Okay. As women of domestic violence, yes, we tend to want to go back, but I knew I couldn't because I knew that I would die in my children would end up dying. Yeah, I left. I got a lifetime restraining order, which that does not help because it's just a piece of paper.

00:20:36:01 - 00:20:59:15

Lisa Anderson

It's a piece of paper. Do you have a quick question for you? You know, I know that I was in an emotionally abusive, almost physical, abusive relationship as well. And I've been told by women who have children that sometimes that's the only thing that pulls you out. Do you think that was your biggest pull or do you think it was equal or both your life and their life?

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Darnitha Johnson

It was never about my it was about my children. Once the abuse started on them, you know, my daughter get abused for not being able to ride a bike, or if she didn't make a straight AA, she would get abuse. So once it stemmed and turn on them, I knew it was time to go, you know, because when my youngest, well, second son started hitting his sister, that was already a pattern starting that was already starting to get embedded in him.

00:21:27:04 - 00:21:51:07

Darnitha Johnson

So like I said, my godmother, which was she was my boss at the time, that was like a guardian angel for me. That's when that was my outing. Yeah. I couldn't trust anybody else, you know, from the family. From my family. I couldn't trust anybody. Because even with your family, when they go through it, it's like what happens in the house stays in the house close now, you know?

00:21:51:13 - 00:22:11:01

Darnitha Johnson

So she was that outing for me to get out. And my children, like I said, they ended up going to counseling, you know, But they they were a bigger part of me leaving. Yeah. You know, I don't think if my godmother would have came in or if they were abused, I think I probably would have still been there.

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Darnitha Johnson

Yeah. You know, so after leaving him, I felt kind of free. But then with the stalking, I was still in prison.

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Lisa Anderson

Yeah. Yeah. That's. How long did it take you?

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Darnitha Johnson

Oh, I left him in 2005. He stalked me up until the day he died in 2009.

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Lisa Anderson

Wow. Well, and how. And how did your children handle the murder? I mean, you said that they saw it.

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Darnitha Johnson

You know, they. My daughter was home with me because I had an apartment at that time. But my two sons and my little cousin I had custody of, they were there with him. He came down and he was visiting from Jacksonville. And from there I saw him that day because I dropped the kids off and there was a look in his eye that you would never, ever see again.

00:23:03:14 - 00:23:20:06

Darnitha Johnson

It's like, you know, a person that when they're getting ready to pass is a certain look like something is. So I dropped them off and, you know, that's when we had kind of like peaceful contact because we didn't even have contact with the kids. Okay. So from there I went home and me and my daughter, she was doing her homework.

00:23:20:18 - 00:23:36:07

Darnitha Johnson

And the next thing I know, her godfather called me and he was like, Where are you at? And I'm like, Why? He was like, Where are you at? And I'm like, I'm home with Ashley. Knowing home where he said, where the other kids, well, they're with my mother in law and their dad, he said, You need to get over there.

00:23:37:00 - 00:23:52:12

Darnitha Johnson

And I was like, Why? He says, Something happened at this point. I grabbed my daughter, We get over there, the whole road is blocked. All yellow tape, everything. And I'm like, okay, what's going on? You know, you're not supposed to cross it. Take Yeah, but as a mother, you don't care, right?

00:23:52:12 - 00:23:53:14

Lisa Anderson

You know, kind of get to your kid.

00:23:53:14 - 00:24:10:23

Darnitha Johnson

Yes. As soon as the table at the post, like I could put you in jail, I was like, okay, I'm going to die there. So at that point, I'm running in a girl that my ex-husband used to mess around with. She was like, We're your kids are over there. And at that point there was no want me get mad at her because I'm trying to find my kids?

00:24:10:23 - 00:24:39:07

Darnitha Johnson

Yeah, they were at the next door neighbors. We used to be their babysitter. They call Nana. And I'm like, What is going on? What is going on? They're screaming and hollering. The next thing I know, they said that I'm not sure if I say his name. Ex-husband, sorry. He got shot. And I'm like, What happened? And then came to find out that it was his mom used to be a candy lady, and there was a young boy that used to come near years ago and would buy candy.

00:24:39:07 - 00:24:57:23

Darnitha Johnson

My ex-husband was known to bully people because, you know, playful ball. He was like built and everything. And my ex-husband was walking down the road with the kids. They were riding bikes and everything. The boy and the girl came through speeding. He told them to slow down. You know, they exchanged words. The boy and the girl backed up.

00:24:57:23 - 00:25:20:04

Darnitha Johnson

The girl was driving. The boy was on the passenger side. Ex-husband did not like that. The boy said something to him. So at that point, my kids were standing next to him and he's going back and forth because he did not he had no fear of anyone. So he at that point, he stood in front of the car and was slamming his hands on the hood, you know, tell him to slow down.

00:25:20:04 - 00:25:38:08

Darnitha Johnson

And whatever else had been said. He came around to the passenger side, kids still standing there and him and the boy exchanging words. He put his hand in the car, swiped the boy, and he hit his nose at that point, I guess he had the gun in the I guess what did you call when you had papers out or whatever?

00:25:38:08 - 00:25:58:18

Darnitha Johnson

Sure. He picked the gun out and shot him in the heart in front of my kids. My second son had to grab his father and little as he was and walk him up to his grandmother's house. When he told his mom that I'm shot, that's when he found dead in front of the kids. So.

00:25:59:08 - 00:26:02:00

Lisa Anderson

So how are your kids doing nowadays?

00:26:02:00 - 00:26:27:04

Darnitha Johnson

Thriving adults. They went through their counseling and with everything at Kimberly's cottage. Yeah, they lost their counselor, like a few months after they got her. She in that past, in a way, they loved her. But now my daughter, she's 25, she graduated from FSU. She's an accountant. My second son, he works as a may, as a supervisor, counselor as his all my youngest as a photographer.

00:26:27:16 - 00:26:34:12

Darnitha Johnson

So through all of the tragedy and triumph that they went through, they turned out to be great, productive citizens.

00:26:34:14 - 00:26:43:06

Lisa Anderson

That's fantastic. That's fantastic. So when did you get involved with working with the sexual Assault Center? Is that correct? Yeah. Okay.

00:26:43:10 - 00:27:01:09

Darnitha Johnson

I used to be a victim there at first. Yeah. So went from victim to working there. I think it was in 2011. Okay. Worked overnight and then end of leaving there, wanting to go into the nursing field left and came back last year.

00:27:01:14 - 00:27:02:00

Lisa Anderson

Okay.

00:27:02:07 - 00:27:21:17

Darnitha Johnson

After I went and did the self therapy and everything like that. So I ended up coming back there because I felt like I had to find myself first. I had to love myself, empower myself and build myself up before I can go in there and help someone else. So that's how I ended up back there last year.

00:27:21:23 - 00:27:25:06

Lisa Anderson

And what exactly does your business do for empowering women?

00:27:25:20 - 00:27:48:13

Darnitha Johnson

Um, I do local speeches, like if someone wants me to come out, I do empowerment speeches, a lot of self counseling from personal events for myself with the women in the shelter or on Facebook, social media, however, they contact me if they know my story. Referral Services. If you need someone to go with you like to the state Attorney's office.

00:27:48:13 - 00:28:13:06

Darnitha Johnson

I will go there, walk you through the paperwork. Police Department. If they need help to talk to someone, they'll contact me and I'll talk to them one on one and empower with the homeless community. I go out, feed them, make sure they have socks and blankets, snacks and things like that. And even with teenage girls to let them know what I went through, you don't have to go through.

00:28:13:06 - 00:28:30:15

Darnitha Johnson

You can love yourself if you're £100 or three or £400, right? So everything that I do through my empowerment, it comes from personal. You know, you could go to counseling, but that's from books, right? You need to talk to someone that has actually been through something and came out of it.

00:28:30:15 - 00:28:52:17

Lisa Anderson

Yeah, I think that's what's so important about sharing stories like this. And I think that's what really draws me to have people share their stories because it helps people connect with not only humanity and but also to see that other people have gone through similar situations as what might their situation be and if they can come out of it, so can.

00:28:53:01 - 00:29:16:23

Lisa Anderson

So can they. Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I can't believe it, but our half an hour is almost up already. I know, I know, I know. So normally I ask if there's anything I didn't ask you, but today I'm going to ask, is there anything that you want to say to people that might be in your situation to help them kind of make that next step to getting out.

00:29:17:15 - 00:29:42:00

Darnitha Johnson

Okay as a woman or for men? Never second guess your intuition if something does not feel right, If it does not look right, don't go into it. You know, love yourself. You have to have that self-worth. People will call you anything, but you don't have to answer to it. You know, if you answer to it, then you are accepting what they're trying to present to you.

00:29:42:11 - 00:30:04:21

Darnitha Johnson

Even if you were in a bad relationship, there is a way out. I made it out. You know, it took years and of abuse and different things like that. But I'm one of those women that actually have made it out. And once you do make it out, go back out there and help pull someone up, empower them, show them that they're not alone in that you love them and you'll always be there for them.

00:30:05:03 - 00:30:21:04

Lisa Anderson

Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Darnitha that you're welcome. I really appreciate you sharing your story. I appreciate that you share your story with multiple people other than this platform. I just think it's so important and I really appreciate your courage that it takes to do that.

00:30:21:11 - 00:30:23:09

Darnitha Johnson

Thank you. And thank you for having me.

00:30:23:09 - 00:30:42:22

Lisa Anderson

Absolutely. Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us here on the Locala podcast. Once again, I'm Lisa Anderson, your host. I hope you enjoyed today's show. Please go ahead and give us a like if you enjoyed this content and subscribe, hit that notification bell and we'll see you next time on a little color podcast where we focus on connections through stories.