Surviving Southwood Avenue: A Story of Family Secrets and Resilience

by Melissa Simonye

A Riveting, Heart-Wrenching Novel Based on a True Story of One Family’s StrugglesIn 1920, four-year-old Stella, a shy but vivacious tomboy, lives a seemingly typical life with her parents and three siblings in Columbus, Ohio. Her world changes forever when her mother runs away with a man Stella has never met. Their father panics about raising his children alone, especially with social services threatening to take his kids away. He believes he has no choice but to move them into a boarding house on Southwood Avenue, run by a deeply disturbed woman and her malicious son. Stella and her siblings quickly learn to keep their secrets to themselves, even from their father.
Losing trust in others and surviving the horrors of Southwood Avenue leaves marks on Stella that are more than just physical. Wondering, Why me? Stella grapples with questions no child should ever face.

Surviving Southwood Avenue is an inspiring story of strength and perseverance based on one woman’s extraordinary life.

255 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2024

About the author

Melissa (McEndree) Simonye is a wife, mother, small business owner, and retired elementary school teacher of twenty-five years. She explored her love for writing in high school by expressing herself through poetry and creative writing. As an educator, her passion was inspiring her students to love reading by sharing authentic literature that spoke to her students’ individuality. Reading about courageous people also fascinated Melissa, especially strong women who made a mark in history. Whenever she can escape her busy life, she exercises, travels, reads books, and writes.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was hard to read at times. It is hard to understand why people are cruel to children. What makes some people unable to survive after abuse and others to be able to find happiness, would be interesting to know. This was a good story about mental illness, choices people make when trying to survive, the relationships between siblings and the choice to keep going, to keep finding love and joy. It is a story very well told that honors Stella and the different parts of her life.

[Annette Summerfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Grandma's name was Stella.
This was so emotional. I had such a hard time reading about her childhood.

[Wendy Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well written debut novel, I enjoyed all of the Columbus and various Ohio references. A book about hard topics, but it was given all of the respect necessary. I would recommend this to other Columbus natives interested in learning about the resilient women who lived here in the 1920s.

[PAMpublish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a true story based on the life of the author's grandmother who lived in the early 1900s. When Stella's mother took off for another life, she left her 4 children in the care of their father. Stella, the youngest of 4, lived in a boarding house with a deranged woman and her son over the next several years, surviving terror and abuse from the two with much directed at Stella. Thereafter, Stella lost her older brother to a horrible accident after reuniting with her father. Despite this, Stella somehow survived living well into her 90s. The story is one of resilience, depicting life of growing up in this era. Fortunately, times have changed whereby any number of the multiple abuses directed towards these children then wouldn't be tolerated at the present time. A worthy read for all.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!! This was an incredibly well written book. It was definitely sad and heartbreaking at times, but also an eye opener. The things that Stella had to endure, but how she dealt with them and overcame them were phenomenal. Definitely a great read and well written book

[Marni Pepper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic story! So well written that I couldn't put it down. One of the best books I've read in a very long time. I highly recommend it!

[Susana Serna · Rating 3 out of 5]

disturbing. thing have not really changed

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story. But very boring near the end.

[Becky Gilles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad story; poorly written a far as story telling. The paragraphs were like reading bullet points in an outline, skipped huge blocks of time. It was a very short book, probably why I gave it a try.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this book. It kept me interested and was a great read!

[Lorrie Kelley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be very disturbing. Although it was well written, the storyline was filled with too much mental abuse, as well as physical abuse.