A few years ago, 80’s R&B singer, Sheila E. released her memoir, The Beat Of My Own Drum, which forced her to have to revisit many memories from her past. Unfortunately some of those memories were as painful today, as they were when they first happened.
Two of those painful memories were of the person who raped her when she was only 5 years old; and the relatives and neighbors who molested her repeatedly when she was a child.
Sheila E. explained that it wasn’t until she became an adult and started to delve deep into her Christian religion, that she realized the depth of the sexual assaults she’d endured as a child:
God started revealing so many things to me. He showed me why I was the way I was. Our pastor told us that we had to do some studying and everyone had to take a turn teaching Bible study, which forced us to really dig deep. It was at that particular time that God showed me so many things. It was overwhelming. I had put so many things in the back of my head and didn’t realize why I was doing certain things. I finally figured out that I was raped at five by a babysitter [which she later revealed was her aunt’s brother who lived upstairs from Sheila and her family when she was a child] and molested by cousins and neighbors next door.
Sheila E. continued:
I remember one time, being at the neighbors’ house, and the little boy put glue in a bag and had me sniff glue. Then they’d just, you know, mess with me. I had thrown all that away; I just hid everything in the back of my mind.
Another thing, I never wanted a telephone in my bedroom – and any kind of alarm clock had to be really silent – low volume and barely enough to wake me up. The Lord showed me that I didn’t want anything to wake me up because that was always the time, when my parents left and I was sleeping, that the guys would come and wake me up and do whatever they needed to do. And I just laid there.
Remembering all that blew me away, because I didn’t even know why, when something woke me up like a phone, it would really startle me.
Years later, she apologized to those she’d hurt as well:
Also, after I accepted Christ, I started calling people and I said, ‘You know what? I’m sorry that I did this or that. I’m really sorry.’ And he had me continue to call and I’m still apologizing, 10 years later. I wanted to be a good person. It’s not that I did anything bad because I wanted to – it was like I was forced to in a way.
[Sources: AccessHollywood; CrossRythms]
Many celebrities have achieved a high level of greatness, have also experienced a high level of pain in their lives. Entertainers like Sheila E., Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Smokey Robinson, Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan, etc., have all endured it. It kind of makes one wonder if that type of extreme pain is almost a prerequisite for greatness. Maybe it’s similar to oppressed people who’ve endured some of the worst types of pain and injustices, becoming a group of people whom are resilient, as a result of surviving their oppression.
We salute Sheila E. for being courageous enough to share such a painful experience with the world.
