By Elliott Doomes, March 5, 2020 — I don’t have a good story or happy story like most people, but I grew up in a house full of love. I had a grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, and a brother. And they all passed away, they all died. And when the last one died, I looked around and I began wondering, “Why am I still here?” At that particular time, I couldn’t find any reason why I was still here. So I fell into a deep depression. I was mentally and physically suffering. Then I saw a movie, an old movie with Ronald Reagan about how Reagan had both legs severed by someone who was envious of him and wanted to destroy him. I remembered that and I repeated that with God coming to save him to Ronald Reagan to give him back some faith in himself and some hope and some confidence in the life ahead. The same thing that he gave Ronald Reagan, I came across a few days ago, between Harry Woods and Mountbatton, and John Bontoon. They named their tour or whatever it is they put together, they named it Invictus and blew my mind, because that [poem] is the one thing that pulled me through when I was at my lowest times. So right now, I’d like to quote you “Invictus.” It states,
“Black is the night
Deep is the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.Under the bludgeoning blows of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Yea my head may be bloody, but unbowed.It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the captain of my fate,
I am the master of my soul.”