Let Evelyn Help You!

          I was honored and humbled when Evelyn asked if I would write the preface for her book, "Till Death Do Us Part" .  I remember clearly the day I met Evelyn and how it was like the hand of God had reached out to grab me from the whirlpool tempest that was threatening to take my own life. Her down-home, soft spoken words were the salve my heart desperately needed. It was as though she had the perfect, angelic insight to save my life. And she did just that. How do I repay her? I wonder. How do I do justice to the work of love and kindness enclosed within the cover of this book?

For Evelyn, it all started back on January 12, 1927 in Shulerville, South Carolina, when she entered this world, the twelfth child of twelve children. Times were hard for the family of fourteen, but back then it was made even more difficult by the Great Depression. Even formal education of any kind was difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Every member of Evelyn’s family, young and old alike, worked hard for every penny just to survive the nightmare of those hard times.

At the age of thirteen, Evelyn's formal education was brought to an abrupt halt when she was sent away to Charleston, South Carolina to toil in a cigar factory (posing as a legal sixteen year old). From there she worked in a restaurant where the wages were decent, the tips even better, and finally her young life seemed to be on a wonderful upswing. However, her dreams were quickly dashed when she met, as she would later discover, Satan in disguise, who coerced and terrified her into marriage. At the tender young age of sweet sixteen, her life was hurled into a tailspin and dove straight for hell.

From birth to 1982, Evelyn somehow survived incest, unending parental and spousal abuse, and even attempted murder—many times, but instead of losing her life to the horrors of abuse, betrayal and injustice, she desperately clung to a profound inner strength and faith. Although life hardened her to abuse, her heart remained open to helping the abused.

The legacy she could have passed on to her children is a far cry from the one she did pass on. Instead of passing on the terrors familial terrorism, she instead has passed on the legacy of never giving up no matter what. Her legacy is to arm yourself with the strength of God and know that one day the abused will be the victors, and the abusers will be judged according to their deeds. It is a subtle message but a powerful truth. Evelyn not only knows it, but she believes it, because she is living proof of that truth, and her story is the proof of her profound faith.

Although her formal education ended at the seventh grade, her life’s education continued. Evelyn Fort Stewart is one of those rare women who have truly earned a Ph.D., but not one of ink and parchment. Her Ph.D. is written with blood, sweat and tears—too much blood and too many tears, and it’s etched on the parchment of her back where she carries the weight of the world's abused.

"Till Death Do US Part", is her story, and one that every person who, whether they have been abused or not, should read. Abuse isn’t just a harsh word or a slap in the face, it is soul destruction in the most horrific sense of the word. Evelyn is a survivor in every way possible but that isn’t enough for her. She is driven to share her precious plan of ‘survivorship’ with others. Because of her pure heart and humble love of the Lord, she acknowledges that she is His instrument in this plan. How she kept a pure heart after all that happened to her can only be understood after reading "Till Death Do Us Part".

Thank you Evelyn for saving my life as well. I am honored to be a small part in your plan for survivorship, and I pray that others find the same heart-light that you offer through sharing your life.

Morgan Chai

Author of ‘Retrieved’

June 10, 2006