Pastor Berny Falcon-Lopez and Husband Pastor Raul share a light-hearted moment at the Victorian Tea held at the Knights of Columbus on July 20, 2014.
There can be light at the end of a dark tunnel and Pastor Berny Falcon-Lopez is a testament to that.
Pastor Berny Falcon-Lopez was the keynote speaker at the 18th/19th Century Victorian Tea held at the Knights of Columbus on 7/20/14. This event was a fundraiser for the Perth Amboy Domestic Violence Response Team.
Each time I’ve seen Pastor Berny, she always has a smile on her face and a pleasant disposition. You would never guess the hardships she endured as a child and then becoming a teen mother. She spoke about the abuse at the hands of her father and her first husband. Growing up she witnessed her father beating her mother and threatening her mom with a knife.
When Pastor Berny was eleven years old, she could not understand why her mom abandoned the family. She later learned that her mom was institutionalized for a nervous breakdown and her mother went back to live with her mother (Pastor Berny’s grandmother)
Pastor Berny recalled how she ran away several times to live with her mom an grandmother only to be dragged back home to endure more violence at the hands of her dad. She was eventually able to move in with her mother and grandmother. Her self esteem had taken a low blow and she married a man who was just as destructive as her father.
She became a mother at the age of 16. In spite of her father’s abuse, she became her father’s caretaker when he became gravely ill.
After her father’s death, she needed to be close to her mom and other relatives that relocated to New Jersey. She begged her husband if she can go. When he finally relented, he gave her a one-way ticket to New Jersey and told her she could not take the kids with her.
When she was finally able to return to Chicago where she and her husband lived, he told her that he wanted a divorce. She said she wasn’t surprised because she knew her husband had already replaced her with someone else. She finally had the strength to stand up to him and with her children in tow, she moved to New Jersey.
In the photo above is Pastor Berny with her new love and husband, Pastor Raul. She has 3 children who have made her very proud.
She is an example of that light that shines at the end of a long dark tunnel. That light is within you. C.M.
