Publisher description: As a single mother haunted by painful memories from her own traumatic childhood, Hadiyah Joan Carlyle pioneered as one of the first women since World War II to enter the trades as a union welder. For Hadiya, welding became a metaphor for healing from the dark past as well as a path to self-reliance and economic survival. While providing insightful perspective on the culture of the 1960s and 1970s, this memoir offers profound inspiration for anyone struggling with issues of abuse and oppression.