About my journey
Finding My Voice and Choosing to Rebuild
My journey into recovery did not happen overnight. I survived abuse and addiction, but I also had to become honest about the choices, excuses, and patterns that kept me stuck. Recovery asked me to take accountability, accept help, and choose a different path—one day at a time. Through writing and sharing my truth, I found my voice, rebuilt my life, and discovered that the chapters that once carried pain could become hope and encouragement for someone else.
Place Where Your Story Matters
Living My Truth was created for individuals and families carrying the weight of abuse, addiction, trauma, recovery, and rebuilding. Through honest storytelling, books, encouragement, and connections to community resources, my hope is that you feel seen, heard, and reminded that you are not alone. I do not provide counselling or professional recovery services—I share lived experience and hope while encouraging each person to find the support and pathway that are right for them.
Your Path, One Day at a Time
No two recovery journeys look exactly the same, and there is no single pathway that works for everyone. Healing can include trying, struggling, learning, accepting help, and choosing to keep moving forward. Through my books and lived experience, I share the reminder that progress does not require perfection—sometimes it begins with one honest choice, one small step, and one day at a time.
My Journey, Shared Through the Pages
What began with Living My Truth has grown into a complete 16-book memoir series, now brought together as eight combined volumes. Each book carries a different part of my journey — from survival and addiction to recovery, accountability, healing, rebuilding, faith, purpose, service, hope, freedom, gratitude, legacy, and continuing forward. These pages were never written to tell a perfect story. They were written to tell the truth. Across all 16 books, I share the lessons I have learned, the choices I have had to take responsibility for, the strength it took to rebuild, and the purpose I discovered by turning lived experience into something that may help another person feel seen, heard, and less alone.
16 Books • 9 Combined Volumes •
Books 1 Living My Truth
Book 2 The Seasons of Survival and Rebuilding Home
Books 3 & 4 Living the Recovery Living With Purpose Books 5 & 6 Living the Calling Living With Courage
Books 7 & 8 Living Through Every Season Living to Serve Books 9 & 10 Living With Hope Living Free
Books 11 & 12 Living the Legacy Living by Grace
Books 13 & 14 Living With Gratitude Living Beyond Myself
Books 15 & 16 Living the Promise Living Forward The final page may close the series,
but it does not close the journey. Recovery continues. Healing continues. Growth continues. And so does the responsibility to keep showing up, serving with purpose, and carrying hope forward. J.R.D. — Just Rise Daily. Because you’re somebody’s somebody.
Signing My Story, Putting My Name to My Truth
This moment represents more than signing a book. It represents years of writing, healing, rebuilding and finding the courage to put my experiences into words. Sitting behind my books and signing my name is something I once could never have imagined for myself. Every page carries a piece of where I have been, what I have learned and the life I continue to build today. What began as my personal truth has grown into something I can now share with others in hopes that someone else will realize they are not alone.
The People and Businesses Behind the Pages
Bringing Living My Truth from my own writing into physical books has been a journey supported by people and businesses within my community. Some of the individuals pictured here through Community Living Wallaceburg helped me organize, print and bind my work in the beginning, while also encouraging and supporting me as I continued writing and sharing my story. They represent just some of the people who have stood beside me along the way. As my books continued to grow, CM Design & Print in Chatham, Ontario helped me take another important step by professionally printing larger quantities of my work. Going from those first locally bound copies to receiving boxes of professionally printed books was a milestone I will never forget. My name may be on the covers and the words may come from my lived experience, but there are people and local businesses behind the scenes who helped me turn those words into something I could physically place into the hands of others. From writing the words, to binding the first copies, to professional printing and sharing them throughout the community—every step and every person who believed in this journey has become part of Living My Truth. J.R.D. — Just Rise Daily.
Living My Truth is rooted in Wallaceburg, Ontario, and created to reach people throughout Chatham-Kent and beyond. Through my books, lived experience, recovery advocacy, and community involvement, I share honest conversations about abuse, addiction, accountability, healing, and rebuilding. My hope is that every person who visits this space leaves knowing that their story matters, their voice deserves to be heard, and they are not alone.
“Your past is part of your story, but it does not have to define where you are going. Take it one day at a time, keep choosing yourself, and never be afraid to speak your truth.”
Jessica Rae Druer