Ready or not life just doesn’t seem worth living and if you’re going to pursue anything with serious n a maximum security diligence and determination, prison cell approximately the you have to have a hope for size of a bathroom, Wilma life”(Traylor). Wilma believes Traylor was doing jumping that a voice, God, told her to jacks. She had a year’s senexercise. That day, she had tence ahead of her at Sanprayed for an experience, a ta Rita County Jail and, for life-changing encounter that once, felt optimistic about could help her understand her situation. She explains, the faith that her parents “being incarcerated, one of and grandparents had bethe things it can do, espelieved in over the years. All cially when you’re separated that she remembers is from from family, loved ones, and that moment, a voice told her the liberty of movement, is... to stretch. Wilma points out, you can get real depressed. “I knew it wasn’t me sayAt the point of depression, ing, “Stretch!” because it was By Lora Maslenitsyna
the last thing I wanted to do”(Traylor). As Wilma began to exercise in her tiny cell, she realized that with just one step toward a positive and healthy lifestyle, she could gain momentum on a path towards redemption. She began to work out and read every day, eventually declaring that year of incarceration as the most amazing and enlightening year of her life. Wilma uses her story of perseverance and atonement to inspire her community to live healthier and more rewarding lives. Through understanding, motivation, and
humility, she is able to establish personal connections with people in various disadvantaged conditions. She has successfully created a system of support for those struggling to find a purpose or overcoming numerous types of abuse through spiritual, moral, and emotional direction. Truly empathetic to the world of addiction, Wilma began experimenting with various drugs and mind-altering substances around the age of thirteen. She had been molested and abused by her biological father, so she was looking for a way to self-medicate. Wilma spent her adolescent years as a poly-substance abuser; in and out of juvenile detention centers, county jails, and federal prisons. She reveals that “[she] sold a lot of drugs...and had a reputation for it. [She]
sold heroin, [smoked] crack, [and sold] crack while snorting heroin. [She] was always right where drugs would be sold and exchanged...As a result of that, [she] probably [has] a couple of robberies or a couple of felonies on [her] record”(Traylor). In 1996, Wilma realized that she was “exhausted with [her] lifestyle. [She] was tired. Just really, really tired of being
tired”(Traylor). She calls the period between 1996 and 1997 her “transformation” year. In the privacy of her cell at Santa Rita County Jail, Wilma experienced a spiritual revelation and accepted Christianity as the main ideology in her life. The fol-
hood. They had all died conlowing eight months were to find subsidized housing through the women’s shelter secutively, around the end busily spent-she produced of 1995. Wilma divulged that two plays: It’s Like a Jungle and was connected to the she had been afraid that she Sometimes and I Got Nothing Berkeley-Oakland Support Services, where she found a would be the next to go, But Love For You, Momma, reasoning, “We always hung based on her personal history job assisting dual-diagnosed and that which she had seen individuals, similar to herself. out together”(Traylor). Kim, Wilma proudly accounts that who she had felt closest to in while living on the streets. She started book clubs, Bible she and her daughter owned: the group, had the simplest studies, and support obituary. While ev“a key, a fork, a spoon, two groups for her fellow ery other person had a packs of instant oatmeal, a inmates that later exnewspaper clipping atcover, a blanket, and a pillow,” panded to her commutached to a photograph, and “life just got better and nity outside of prison. Kim only had a small better…” (Traylor) When Wilma was fiimage photocopied onto nally released from ina piece of paper. The carceration, she immediately In an interview with paper was folded over, enpicked up her daughter from Wilma in her home, she pro- closing a short paragraph of duced an envelope of polaher mother’s home in Las fading text. Wilma was upset Vegas and found a home at a roids, letters, certificates, and with the state of the tribute newspaper clippings, recog- because she believed that San Leandro domestic abuse shelter. She confesses, “I nizing that when most people her friend deserved more wasn’t in a domestic violent learn about her history, they to her memory. The article relationship but, I couldn’t are inclined not to believe her did not portray every detail see taking my two year without tangible proof. She that she felt was necessary old daughter in the shelters tenderly pulled a series of to accurately describe her that they had with all kinds photographs and obituaries, friend, adding, “I didn’t want of people”(Traylor). Thereexplaining that each belonged to go like that. I thought, I to one of her closest friends have to do something with after, Wilma states her life was “amazing”. She was able during her tumultuous child- my life”(Traylor). She decided
that if she were to be the next person in the group to go, she would have something to show for herself. The obituary sparked her “transformation” and served as a reminder throughout her final year of incarceration. In 2004, Wilma’s Bi-
responsibility. Her intimate Bible study was moving on, whether she thought she was ready or not. Eventually, the chapel was shut down, but the people still asked for a service. They moved to another building on the grounds
pastor actually said, “You know, you’re pastoring those people, right?”(Traylor). When asked whether she had realized a new dream in relation to her new position, Wilma replied, “I never wanted to become a pastor. I can’t say that I love pastoring because
ble study began a “Purpose Driven Life” campaign that asked its members to open Bible studies in their communities. Wilma started a group at her job and was eventually asked to preach on the local VA grounds. Although she was a licensed minister, she confesses that she was not ready for so much
until that, too, was closed. Wilma acknowledges that it “meant something, to find a building and move the ministry somewhere else…[She] still didn’t see it as pastoring, just as overseeing the ministry”(Traylor). She only noticed her knew position when “people started calling [her] pastor. Then, [her]
that’s a lot of work and that’s a lot of responsibility. You are accountable to God. But, I wanted to do whatever God wanted me to do”(Traylor). She finally embraced her role when the community was able to plant a church in Oakland. In justification, she says, “I never expected to get that far”(Traylor).
Wilma agrees that her background helps her reach out to the people who seek deliverance because she understands the obstacles that many have faced. Unaccounted for her empathy, though, is her religion itself. It has been found that people who accept faith in their lives are “off the charts in terms of resting activation in the left frontal lobes. This region of the brain supports compassion related action, feeling, and ideation. After years of devotion and discipline, [this is] a different brain, humming with compassion-related
neural communication”(Keltner 248). Wilma believes that God set her on a path to help others, but there seems to be validation for her skills from a scientific perspective, too. Toni Ali, who is a friend and member of Wilma’s church, justifies that “[her] first impression of [Wilma was that] she was very down to earth, very personable, and very approachable”(Ali). Toni names Wilma as a friend before calling her pastor. The one idea that unites the ethics of the world’s religions, compassion, is indirectly ingrained into Wilma’s brain
not only by circumstance, but by devotion. Currently, Wilma pastors a local church and oversees a ministry while studying towards achieving a Master’s degree in Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary. She encapsulates her history and the path that she has chosen with one fundamental statement:
“If you just change the way that you approach people and how you deal with people, then you can change the way they approach and the way they deal with you.”