“When The Light Finds Us” is a gripping new addition in the memoir genre. Judy Henderson’s story, in the expert hands of ghostwriter Jimmy Soni, eloquently tells her journey from a rough beginning through abuse after abuse, culminating in a 36-year sentence of wrongful imprisonment. Reflecting on her life, she believes the “light” found her at her darkest time, and her faith sustained her when all seemed lost.
We meet Henderson at 8 years old, moving with her family from state to state as her father looked for work. Finally settled in a Missouri home without running water, Henderson took over the daily chores and helped raise her younger siblings. When her father’s alcoholic rage took hold, no one was safe from his angry blows. Many times, the author shielded her siblings and took the beatings herself. Before leaving high school, Henderson endured the additional trauma of her father’s breakdown and being sexually abused by the local pastor. She'd even attempted suicide.
Bad Romance
The next section of the story concerns Henderson’s bad luck at choosing romantic partners. They bring chaos and danger into her life. First was her high school boyfriend, a womanizer who became abusive after their shotgun wedding and arrival of their first child, a daughter, Angel. Henderson found work while her husband continued his senior year of high school. Often when returning home from her waitressing job, she and Charlie would argue, and she'd inevitably “feel the sting of his hand.”Next came husband number two, who charmed his way into Henderson’s life. He gave her the renewed hope she so desperately sought. This new love soon became the catalyst to Henderson’s next chapter: thrown into a downward spiral so terrible that readers will wonder how she was able to hold on. A series of events placed Henderson at the scene of a crime, and she was forced to go on the run.
When captured, Henderson was framed for the crime, found guilty, and sentenced to life without parole. Because of one courtroom blunder after another, she considered her defense a “a paper boat in a hurricane.” Witnesses lied on the stand, and she endured a “thunderstorm” of a prosecution. Unsure whether her lawyer had her best interests at heart, Henderson sat in the courtroom, a “silent volcano of fury, as lie after lie piled up around [her].”
A Prisoner
In the early days of her prison sentence, Henderson desperately sought solace. She wrote, “In my darkest moments, I wondered if this was some brutal test.” Separated from her young children and placed into the violent and cruel world of the prison system, she turned to the Bible her mother had left her. She grabbed onto faith, which she calls her “life preserver,” and prayed.
She learned to navigate the prison hallways, which inmates to avoid, how to protect herself, and how to stay on the lookout for the guards’ cruelty. Through it all, she always spoke out against the injustices she endured and those she witnessed. Letters of complaint were sent regularly concerning the need for adequate medical care, mental health services, and the cruelty of the staff. Though she feared ramifications, she alerted prison authorities to a guard who sexually abused inmates.
Books: A New Way Forward
After transferring to a prison in the Southwest, Henderson found it offered programs for real rehabilitation. She joined the battered women’s group and learned ways to heal; she frequented the prison library and got lost in self-help books. She recalled that reading Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom” hit “close to home,” and believed that if he could release his bitterness, she could as well.A New Verdict
Not giving up on reversing her prison sentence, she found a lawyer who advocated for her return to a Missouri prison and was granted a new trial. Witnesses recanted false testimony, new evidence was uncovered, and the inadequacy of her defense was revealed.The pace quickens as this story comes to its conclusion. What hoops did Henderson have to jump through, and how many delays and false hopes did she withstand? Would Missouri Governor Eric Greitens and his office assistants heed the calls and messages from legal advocates about this case, review the wrongful charge, and set her free?
“When The Light Finds Us” serves as a testament to Henderson’s unending fountain of hope and unceasing ability to find the strength to persevere. It’s one inspiring story for sure, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to consider her survival miraculous.
Henderson now advocates for abused women. She helped pass Missouri’s first battered women’s bill. She became a paralegal, works with policymakers on prison reform, and volunteers to assist those who are released from prison re-enter society. “The system saw only a number,” she wrote. “Society saw a convicted murderer. But in my heart, I knew who I was: a daughter, a mother, a woman of faith who refused to be broken.”
