Kidnapped 3 Times by Her Mentally Ill Mother as a Child, Eliza VanCort Helps Women Live ‘Bravely’

The motivational speaker and author overcame trauma. Now, Eliza VanCort helps women live “unapologetically.”

Here is a link to an exclusive story People Magazine wrote about me today. My mother is still a missing person. I hope is that someone will read this, somewhere, and know what happened to her… So please help me amplify this story… Give it a clap. Share it on social. Whatever you can to amplify our story would be a appreciated. Be well, and give the people you care about a hug. Tell them you love them more than you think you should. Life is so very fragile.

Here’s how my story starts…

The second time Eliza VanCort’s mother kidnapped her, Eliza remembers the feeling of her feet lifting off the ground. Her mother scooped her up and carried her as she ran to a cab.

Just 4 years old at the time, Eliza was on a scheduled visitation with her mom, Mary Louise Marini VanCort, who had recently been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, in a park in Ithaca, New York in August 1975.

We hitchhiked across the country by truck,” Eliza, now 50, tells PEOPLE. “It was a profoundly traumatic experience for me.”

Mary Louise and her husband, H. Matthys Van Cort, had…