Ms. Rachel E. Milano was born in 1973 in Riverhead NY, on the coast of Long Island. From the time she was born Rachel was the target of emotional, physical, mental and sexual abuse, as were her siblings. Before turning ten years old, she lived in 10 different places not including the times she lived with her family on the streets. Between foster homes, extended family and her biological mother, Ms. Milano fought to maintain her most valued possession, her sanity. Of her other siblings, one did not survive their childhood circumstances of abuse and neglect, three who were placed for adoption and Rachel herself who was finally placed at the age of ten. Twenty three years later, she reunited with several of her siblings and biological mother. Since then, she has discovered her purpose in life and now lives to make her past and the past of her siblings worth having been survived.
Ms. Milano has fought countless fights as a survivor of childhood assaults. She's been wounded by long drawn out battles against starvation, rape, rejection, mental and emotional cruelty. Thus far, she has beaten the medical consequences of such criminal acts, putting the side effects of her past in remission. Ms. Milano has grown from using her voice in the world of urban seduction to the now explosive voice of freedom for victims of abuse and neglect. She has surrendered to the cause of victim recovery as well as abuse/neglect awareness and prevention for the remainder of her life.
Presently Ms. Milano thrives as one who lives by the rod of "emotional reconstructive therapy", Unconditional Love of Self. She is living proof that positive statistic are harvested out of crimes against children. She is "new" to this world, this thing called life, yet she is happy to be free even though her recovery is long term although it has proven effective by the day. Today, she has no reason to die and every reason to live.
Her expertise? She has lived it, she can relate. Ms. Milano has vommitted her life to the cause of abuse and neglect prevention through victim recovery. She have a proven record of having over come her traumas and offers viable solutions to the process of victim recovery. Ms. Milano is gifted naturally with the ability to see healing on a universal level. Having endured the traumas of her life, she has mastered intuitive tools of survival and identified their use not only by herself but by the sustaining life forces within the laws of nature. Her goal in life as a Holistic Victim Recovery Facilitator is to help others realize we are bound by the living laws of existence, the purposes of destruction, devastation, restoration, negatives and positives are all used in the process of universal creation, a process we as humans are not independent of.
Ms. Milano is a visionary, she sees lessons of healing and life in every move she makes. She is a woman who is continuously using everyday real examples of life to reveal the lessons applicable to the total human composite. Thus, most every message she delivers comes complete with a life metaphor. What makes this possible is her approach to recovery which reveals that patterns of healing found in micro life will manifest equally in the macro of life. Ms.Milano uses both relative and absolute knowledge to share the distinctions between them as well as to present how they function together.
The reality of this woman is that she believes in walking the talk, relating and proving knowledge and understanding with direct actions and reactions. One of her greatest life accomplishments was the 250 Mile Push for Awareness held April 16, 2008 through June 2, 2008. The vision came while Ms. Milano was sitting at table convinced there was a way to propel forward, advance from ideas practically coming to fruition to actually existing for practical use. She remembered a statement... "a bird in hand is worth two in the bush"... "bird in hand" she repeated it looking around at the things she owned, there wasn't much there for a single mother of five but she knew there had to be something that could provide a way.
Then she thought of her storage shed where in her mind's eye she could see the wagon she purchased some four years earlier as a security investment, thinking one day she would use it to house and sell her one of a kind snack food product. Instantly, the idea crossed her mind, "What if I push my wagon from Savannah to Atlanta?" Her assistant immediately protested and still the vision unfolded. Ms. Milano could see the plan laid out in her mind and knew that making the wagon a historic item would enable her to auction it's worth and acquire the revenue to officially launch STOP~WATCH & Respond (SWR), the organization she'd been running on fumes for nearly a year. She talked of how she would stake a flag every mile and tell people about victim recovery, how child abuse and neglect were not just children's issues but environmental issues. She saw what she needed to make it happen and sought out immediately to achieve it.
Ms. Milano gave herself one month's time knowing child abuse and neglect awareness month was just around the corner and it needed to be begin then. The miles were counted, the mileage chart was created, body building sessions began immediately with professional body builder Mr. Tony O'Connor and wagon reconstruction began. Thanks to the affective fund raising of her family, she was able to gather the supplies needed to journey out. One month later, Ms. Milano looked up to the sky and said, "sis, I will give your love a voice" and she stepped out into the road beginning what is now being called "The Historic Walk of Love."
The journey was to take sixteen days and in fact took six weeks, five days finishing June 2, 2008 at 10:19 a.m. Her goal was to raise awareness on the issues surrounding child abuse and neglect but as the miles went by, she realized it was a journey symbolic of the every day life... survival. Now, after 250 plus miles of eventful encounters to include surviving being side swiped by a semi truck, The Wagon Lady has stories to tell that will help inspire you along your personal life journey. Ms. Milano states, "It started out as my journey and my purpose but ended up being my purpose and our journey... that is life!" Memorabilia products are currently being replicated for those who wish to treasure the memory of this once in a life time experience.
Her story lends a unique perspective on victim recovery and offers a fresh look at the process. She is real, she is raw, she is sincere and motivated to help struggling survivors get back on track. She stands, a witness, a living testimony, she can relate and her method yields POSITIVE RESULTS!
