Eddie Minyard is a retired Disaster Response and Emergency Management expert. He's traveled the world in order to help people after natural disasters strike. My guest attributes his "ability to bring a sense of calm and clarity to a scenario that's otherwise very chaotic and difficult to deal," to his mother, Barbara Joyce.
Eddie's mother had to deal with adversity and chaos from a very early age, yet she always remained calm. She was the only child of a single mother and she never knew her father until later on in life. She fell in love and got married at the age of 16, had two children and became a single mother herself by the time her oldest son, Eddie, was 5 years old. Barbara was hardworking and had the help of her mother and grandmothers, though her maternal grandmother suffered from Polio and MS.
She was a sexual assault survivor who was held captive and tortured after she came home for lunch one day and surprised a burglar. For many years after the incident, she was a very out spoken advocate for sexual assault victims and survivors. Eddie says, "she wouldn't accept the fact that she had limitations."