My Story
In 1994 while I was in chiropractic college learning how to help people heal, my first child, my son Edward Oliver, was stillborn. It was very sad. My husband and I were so much in love and we had endured some really tense and overwhelming situations before but nothing like this. How could I have this happen? I had been doing massage, and nutrition and receiving good chiropractic care for years. What had I done wrong?
And I asked myself – did I really believe everything happens to the highest good?
If so, God, show me the good!
The first good I saw was the loving way my husband cared for me. My sister-in-law, my mother and father-in-law and family and friends cared for us and helped me and my husband grieve.
We had many strange signs and synchronicities happen before and after his birth and death that let us know we were having this experience for a reason.
I asked God to put me anywhere that healing would happen. I was at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival that summer and had an amazing healing with The Blind Boys of Alabama. That performance changed me. Feeling waves of love wash through me I knew there was healing happening.
For the next 20 years I practiced and learned healing. I always asked to have it be easy and obvious to me. I became a master of Bio Energetic Synchronization Technique, and a certified energy healer and mentor.
Then another gift came and in my 50th decade I was called to unleash the blues singer in me.
With The Tanya English Band and trio we witnessed many healings through our music.
Blues is a healer. And it healed me. We went on to open in venues small and large, played at premier blues clubs in Chicago and Davenport and met and played with amazing musicians and friends.
A few years ago I met the last original surviving Blind Boy of Alabama, when my mentor in blues introduced me to him and we had dinner together before their show.
And then last year, 2021 my band was in the tent stage at the festival! I had the honor of sharing my story and Healing with the Blues, the song, to a generous and receptive audience. It all came around full circle.
God is good all the time.
I now help women who have experienced grief over their whole lives and especially stillbirth and pregnancy loss discover the gifts hidden there. There is treasure buried in the tragedy and you do not have to relive it to find it.
Among my treasures were healing and singing the blues.
What are yours?
