72 Months

72 MONTHS - A MEMOIR

By L.A. Armstrong

Before you judge her, you need to know her story.

What happens when a little girl is forced to grow up before she ever gets the chance to be a child? When survival becomes second nature, love becomes complicated, and the choices of yesterday follow you into tomorrow?

72 MONTHS is a raw, emotionally compelling memoir about childhood trauma, family dysfunction, colorism, complicated relationships, incarceration, resilience, and the extraordinary courage it takes to rebuild a life.

At the center of this unforgettable story is Shadè Matthews, a woman whose journey cannot be defined by a prison sentence, a painful childhood, or the mistakes she has made along the way.

Long before incarceration entered her story, Shadè was navigating a world of adult responsibilities, family expectations, emotional wounds, and difficult lessons about love, loyalty, and survival.

Through the people who shape her life, including LaShaun and Morrus, readers encounter the complicated realities of relationships, personal choices, betrayal, accountability, and the search for belonging.

But 72 MONTHS is not your traditional prison memoir.

Prison is one chapter. The woman is the story.

This deeply personal narrative explores what happens when childhood survival patterns follow us into adulthood, when the people we love become part of our greatest lessons, and when healing requires us to confront truths we have spent years avoiding.

With emotional honesty, psychological depth, and moments of hard-earned wisdom, L.A. Armstrong invites readers into a journey that challenges assumptions about women, trauma, incarceration, redemption, and second chances.

This is a story for anyone who has ever been misunderstood, judged by their circumstances, forced to grow up too soon, or determined to become more than their past.

More than a story of incarceration, 72 MONTHS is a story of identity, survival, healing, and reinvention.

Because the most important chapter of your life may be the one you haven't written yet.

Before you judge her, know her story.