BRENDA TRACY, UNDEFEATED

Brenda Tracy. via oregonlive.com

When you need help, Brenda Tracy is right here.

How many times have you had problems no one understands?

Every time you’ve had a problem?

If you’re like most of us, you see half an inch of water and think you’ll drown.

Brenda Tracy sees half an inch of water and walks right through. She’s seen more than a half inch of water, she’s been in the deep end of the pool and learned to swim.

But it wasn’t a pool. More of a dunk tank that leaves people drowning.

Her pool was a justice system gone wrong and she helped make it right. She’s making it right every day.

She’s a nurse and that’s a huge difference. If you need a nurse, she’s the one. And who doesn’t appreciate a nurse?

Her profession keeps doctors honest. Nurse Tracy makes adjustments, checks levels, reports changes. It’s nurse stuff, the sort of care you get, or hope you get.

Who cares for nurses when they need help? Who cares for women when they reach bottom?

Brenda Tracy sunk to the bottom with no lifeguard.

A young mother of two sons found herself alone after the worst night anyone might imagine.

So bad, she planned to report the events of the night, then kill herself. Instead, she found an ally in a nurse and turned the corner.

Today she is a leading voice against campus sexual assault, a voice for assault victims on campus or off.

Brenda Tracy is the lifeguard and brendatracy.com her tower.

Like the man who said he went to sleep one night a pillar in the community and woke up the next day accused of rape, Tracy spent almost two decades going to sleep a victim.

Just another case, another rape, another sexual assault with a rape kit in storage somewhere. Except she refused to be swept under the rug the way rape kits are, or stay under the rug.

What changed Brenda Tracy?

From brendatracy.com:

My name is Darius Adams. I’m the son of Brenda Tracy who is a public rape survivor. It was 2010 when my mom first told me that she was raped. I was 17. We were sitting in our car in our driveway. I remember it because it was a life-changing moment for me. She didn’t tell me because she wanted to. She told me because she had to. She was trying to save my life. I was out of control at the time. I was angry and broken and I didn’t care if I lived or not.

I remember her crying and struggling to get the words out “I was raped.” She apologized to me over and over and asked me not to hate her. “Please don’t be ashamed of me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I still can’t understand why she was apologizing to me, but after that talk, I started to see her as a different person. I saw her as someone who had been hurt, and she was just doing the best she could as a single mother with two kids. It was then that I began to turn my life around — mostly for myself, but also for my mom. I wanted her to be proud of me. I wanted to make sure that what she went through and all the sacrifices she made for me and my brother were not in vain.

Brenda Tracy changed for her kids.

We’re all somebody’s kid. Some of us have kids. Imagine telling a kid Tracy’s story. Imagine a kid hearing Tracy’s’s story.

If you have sons, tell them the story. If you have daughters, tell them the same story. Keep telling it until they listen.

Talking to you, Baylor. Talking to you, Penn State. Talking to you, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State. Talking to you Washington and Washington State, to you Cal, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State. Talking to you Colorado, and Utah.

Nebraska brought Tracy in to talk to their football team.

The line for other teams starts here.