I was raised in a middle class family. My father was an alcoholic, which really affected my life. I was also sexually abused at various points in my life, and this affected my whole life.
When I was 16 years old, I left home to be with my boyfriend who was 10 years older than me. I had my first baby when I was 17 years old. I got pregnant again and had my second baby when I was 19 years old. I left that relationship when I was about 21 years old. It was physically, emotionally, and verbally abusive. I got my own place with my 2 kids, and we were on welfare. I also started back at [] College. My cousin, who was about my age, introduced me to the sex work industry. I worked for approximately two years at an agency in Victoria. Life got financially better for me and the kids. Sometimes I would make $500 a night. Then I met my husband and I stopped doing sex work. I had my third child []. So, I was married, had three kids, and I went back to school. I earned 4 diplomas and became a LPN (nurse) for a number of years. My husband had a good job and we made good money. We owned a house, boat, car, and truck. Our marriage lasted for 17 years When I was 35 years old I began to dwell on past memories of abuse and I became deeply depressed. I then went on long term disability from work. I started using morphine as a way to self-medicate to cover my pain and depression. My husband found out and he made many attempts to get me off morphine, but it just didn't work. At the end of our marriage I tried to commit suicide, so he tried for separation, then divorce. By then I was really depressed. I lost everything, even my kids. I signed over my house that was worth $400,000 for $50,000. I used all that money on drugs. I tried to commit suicide again. Then when I was 40 years old I lived in a house with a roommate who was never there, and I decided to put an ad in Monday Magazine so that I could start doing sex work again. I would work from my house and also had a driver to drive me to places where I could meet clients (like their homes or hotel rooms). I used the money I made to buy drugs. Finally I started to attend a drop-in centre at times, but I still used drugs. Eventually I went more and more and used drugs less and less until I stopped. Because I stopped using drugs, I stopped being in the sex trade. When I look back on my time in sex work, I found it to be much safer working for agencies rather than working on the street, as agencies are monitored more. I feel working in the sex trade helped me out while I needed the money. My hope is for all people working in the sex trade to be safe at all times.
