Stella Reddy's Story of Hope

Just Breathe

A Bittersweet Respite

Happy New Year! I hope this past week has been a truly wonderful one for you.

My holidays were fantastic! I had such a lovely time getting to experience some really beautiful and special light displays around town. But the best part was being able to spend quality time with my friends and family. My hubby and I greatly enjoyed the Holidays!

One evening, I even sat back and had a beer, which was a bit unusual for me but ended up being a surprisingly refreshing and enjoyable experience. Overall, I feel incredibly content and grateful for the joy and warmth I was able to soak in during this holiday season.

Wary of the Calm Before the Storm

However, I now find myself in a bit of a lull period, which always makes me feel uneasy. Once again, the adult bullies who have been harassing me online have gone quiet and mostly disappeared from the internet.

I’m certainly relieved to have a break from their nasty behaviour and abuse. But I can’t help feeling suspicious, knowing from past experience that this is often just the calm before the storm. It isn’t the first time they’ve retreated like this over the past 8 years, only to return with even more viciousness than before.

Cautious Optimism Amid the Quiet

I’ve taken the past couple of weeks to try to emotionally and mentally adjust to these latest changes in the cyberbullying campaign that I, and many others, have endured from these adult bullies.

They’ve deleted a significant number of the domains they were using for their smear campaigns against us in just the past couple of months. And now they’ve largely disappeared from the internet once again. I feel genuinely grateful for this respite, even as I remain wary of what may come next. I am learning to just breathe through it all.

In fact, the only domains they have left now are stellareddy.com, davidstrashin.com (which contains no actual content), and districtschoolboardofniagara.com.

And I’m hopeful that even those will soon be allowed to expire – stellareddy.com and davidstrashin.com are set to do so in April 2025, and the other one next month, in February. I will be so relieved and grateful if those final remaining vestiges of their online harassment campaign are finally wiped away.

A Complex Mix of Emotions

At the same time, I do feel a bit anxious. When there is a lull in being abused online by these nasty people, it’s always a bit scary for me. Their relentless pattern of retreating and then returning with even more cruelty has left me understandably cautious.

I can’t help but worry about when the other shoe will drop and they’ll resurface to renew their campaign of harassment.

But I’m also genuinely excited to see if this current period of quiet will indeed lead to a more permanent removal of their online presence. I will be overjoyed and enormously grateful if they finally leave me and others alone for good. I have spent the past 8 years watching them try to ruin me and my husband.

It’s a complex mix of emotions, but I’m hopeful that this lull may signal the beginning of the end of their reign of abuse. It would be awesome!

Keeping the Faith

I live in Hope, always! Just breathe and in time, it will come, I have no doubts anymore. I have learned that nothing lasts forever and one day, it will come. Until that day, I will just breathe through it all!