Pattie Mallette was a young child lost in a terrible maelstrom of trauma, neglect, and suffering long before she became well-known as the mother of a worldwide celebrity. Her early years were shattered by terrible sexual abuse, a painful secret she kept for years. Pattie, like many young people who had survived abuse, was overwhelmed by feelings of guilt, shame, and self-blame. She absorbed the trauma, thinking that she was somehow inherently flawed and accountable for the atrocities committed on her.

The emotional burden was too much for her to handle by the time she was a teenager. Pattie fell into a dark, hopeless place as a result of her acute depression and attempts to take drugs to dull her suffering. She tried suicide when she reached her lowest point. In retrospect, she would characterize that horrific time as the sad result of years of unresolved trauma coupled with the risky escape of drugs and alcohol, which only made her reality more terrifying.

At the youthful age of seventeen, Pattie found out she was pregnant during this difficult recuperation phase.

Her situation appeared to be a prescription for catastrophe to the outside world. She was a teenager, single, jobless, struggling with serious mental health problems, and still recovering from a lifetime of abuse. The pressure started to increase almost instantly from every direction. She was persuaded to abandon the pregnancy by friends, relatives, and counselors who said she was too young, too poor, and too unstable to have a kid. They assured her that it was the only sensible option to preserve her own future.

However, Pattie sensed a deep, indisputable change in her soul. She rejected the overwhelming urge to abort even though she had no idea how she would manage the enormous burden of parenting, how she would pay for food, or how she would survive. She firmly and resolutely decided to give her unborn child a chance at life.

For the young mother, the day she gave birth to her son, Justin Bieber, was nothing short of amazing. In the birth room, most mothers hear a frantic, draining howl, but Pattie heard something very different. To her, her baby boy’s first cry sounded like lovely, well-structured  music. Wrapped in the sterile warmth of a hospital ward, Pattie realized her life had found its ultimate purpose at that very moment. Regardless of the challenges that were ahead, she promised to love and protect him.