The Voice of Acceptance is a memoir about the human spirit, a tale of adversity that shows how an ordinary person can choose to face hardships with hope and strength, refusing to be limited by abuse and disability, but determined to be happy through the courage to face life, and the will to live it. This true, first person account begins with a jubilant IRIS (POV) in the present. However, it soon becomes clear that, as a young girl growing up in Chicago in the 1950s, she is afflicted with an inexplicable problem when speaking. As her speech worsens, Iris sees her home life changing. Her earliest childhood days of happiness are gone, and her mother, the person whom she adores and feels closest to, turns on Iris, blaming her for her broken voice. Iris honestly describes her life as one that is voiceless, and the difficulties that come with it - from the effort it takes to speak and try to fit in, from family, and from social stigmas targeted at her abnormal voice. As disfluency and abuse exacerbate, Iris feels overwhelmed by her challenges. However, despite these obstacles, Iris vows to do whatever she can to regain the happiness she once knew, finding it mostly through her love of classical music. Miraculously, though she can barely speak, Iris has a gift for singing. Battling with her mother and society-at-large to become educated and decently employed, Iris has little support and struggles to cope. In her loneliness, burdened by shame and sadness, she falls into a downward spiral, turning to sex, drugs, and anything else that may bring an escape. Digging deep to find hope and happiness, Iris pulls herself up. Her speech remains the same, but her singing brings her so many accolades that she is able to follow her dream to perform. With little self-confidence, Iris fights her demons within as she pushes herself forward, onto the stage of professional grand opera, and to Spain and the exciting world of flamenco. With her mother's death, Iris remains plagued by the scars left from their relationship, but relentlessly tries to make sense of it. Through her never-ending search for truth, Iris, after forty years, learns about her voice, but even greater understandings emerge - about herself, and what it truly is to be happy.
About the Author: Although afflicted as a child with an inexplicable speech problem, Iris Miller Stetson worked professionally as a singer for over twenty years. Since 2008, she has worked with the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and has been writing to promote a better understanding of what it is to live without a normal speaking voice. She lives with her husband in northern California.