Woman's escape from abusive relationship detailed in 'As the Sycamore Grows'

October 24th, 2023

Author Jennie Miller Helderman (L) and Ginger McNeil (R) (Courtesy of Jennie Miller Helderman)

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The statistics are troubling for Georgia, which ranks 10th in the nation for its rate of women dying at the hands of their male partners.

According to the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, there were 193 known domestic violence fatalities in the state in 2022.

Recent data also shows as many as 53 counties in Georgia either had no access or limited access to domestic violence services.

Out of troubling nationwide statistics like these, comes a story of hope. In the re-released book, “As the Sycamore Grows,” Author and former freelance journalist Jennie Helderman tells the story of Ginger McNeil. The book details how McNeil escaped a 17-year abusive relationship.

Helderman met McNeil in 2005. She learned of McNeil’s escape in 2000 from an Alabama cabin her husband kept padlocked with no phone and no electricity. Helderman also had an opportunity to interview McNeil’s ex-husband, Mike.

“He refused to work. In fact, there are lots of ways you can be abused, and he knew a lot of them to practice on her,” said Helderman.

“And one of them is the control of money. Even poverty can be a way of abusing somebody when one person is in poverty, and the other is not. So, he controlled the money.”

Helderman described Ginger McNeil as a dutiful wife. After her escape with her children, McNeil helped run a shelter for abuse survivors, studied in college and successfully lobbied the Alabama State Legislature for stricter domestic violence laws.

“This story is a story of hope. It’s a story that’s inspirational in many ways,” said Helderman. “Her story will show what can happen and the good that can come of the life she has learned to live.”