Ghosts of My Mind

James Patrick O’Francis had become increasingly unhappy in the crime-infested city in which he lived, so he moved his family to the rural area of the Appalachian Mountains where his sons could enjoy the clean air, closeness, and security of a small town. What O’Francis did not expect to encounter was the callousness and malice that a corrupt political system offers an outsider. O’Francis’ belief in honor and integrity soon became challenged in ways he could never have imagined. Over the course of many years, he faces discrimination, prejudice, character assassination, and betrayal, bringing extreme hardships to himself and his family. The injustices in which he fights in the school and system in which he works are religious and racial discrimination, inappropriate sexual conduct, and rape. His devotion to his students, the joy, warmth, and laughter in which he shared with them on a daily basis over shadowed the ever-increasing stress and pressure applied by his administrators along with the aid of mendacious, dissembling, jealous colleagues. Unknown to O’Francis was he was suffering from PTSD, and he struggled to keep his elite military training in check, as the ghosts of his past grew ever closer to over taking his life and destroying himself and his family.