Topic: Surviving Childhood Trauma, A Healthy Lifestyle Reward

Kamala: Hello everyone.

This is Kamala Appel and I’m here today with an incredible survivor who also has a huge inspirational story to share with us, Mr. Charles Van Kessler.

Charles please tells us a little bit about your background.

Charles Van Kessler: Okay. I’m a Dutchman. I’m American now but I was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1941 during World War II.

Because my family on my father side was Jewish most of the family was taken away by the Germans and transported in to concentration camps. I ended up in a state run orphanage for 8 years. Eight years of brutally living a nightmare and lots of abuse, no food especially during the war years. We ate flower bulbs to survive.

So when I was 9 years old I ran away. At that young age I just drifted all over Holland and try to talk to anyone who’d want to listen to my story and tried to find a place to sleep and get some food to eat and trying to start a different kind of life. That went on for quite a while till, thank God, I ended up in the United States at the age of 23.

Kamala: And what happen to you when came to United States?

Did you experience any kind of aha moment or pivotal point in your life that made you realize that you had to be a little bit healthier and make a commitment to living a healthier life?

Charles: Yeah, you know, my body was a disaster. My mind was a disaster. I had nightmares and headaches and emotionally, I was a nightmare.

So after talking to some people when I arrived in the United States, I started to take a handful of vitamin pills trying to make a difference in my life and obviously starting to live healthier as well. But I came very quickly to find out that vitamin pills do not do too much for you because of the absorption process.

I hope this interview excerpt provided you with some Healthy Lifestyle Rewards.

The rest of the interview with Charles is available in the Reasons For Being Healthy book available at Amazon.com. Click here to purchase on the Amazon website. (This leads to an external website).