I was thrilled to invite Mary Carouba back, this time to talk about her very interesting life. In fact, it was so interesting, I have had to split this into two episodes. In Part 1, we start off talking about rats and squirrels for some bizarre reason and then get back on track and talk about how receiving a life-saving liver transplant from a 14-year-old boy had the consequence of Mary performing 100 acts of kindness. Mary then talks about her traumatic childhood, where she received a lot of physical and emotional abuse. She shares the different roles that kids play in dysfunctional families and then goes on to explain how her unusual upbringing prepared her for her career in Child Protective Services. Rather than being a victim, Mary takes full responsibility for her life and explains how she has total forgiveness for all the people who have mistreated her in her life. We also had time to talk about why she wrote the critically acclaimed book “Women at Ground Zero – Stories of Courage and Compassion” about the incredibly brave women who were completely unacknowledged and unseen after 9/11.