March 6, 2026 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, as a young woman, Harmony Dust Grillo found herself pulled into the commercial sex industry, a world that promised independence but delivered something far more complicated. One friendship, however, changed everything. Here’s Harmony with the story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and you're about to hear
an incredible story of hope and redemption. Here's Madison to
bring you the story.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You might think that it would be crazy that an intelligent, beautiful,
and driven girl would enter the sex industry. It might
make a little more sense if we heard a bit
about her childhood.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I was raised in a pretty violent neighborhood and a
really chaotic home in the neighborhood I grew up in.
Domino's wouldn't deliver a pizza after dark, and the police
actually wouldn't even come to my house after dark. My
mother and my stepdad had a very tumultuous relationship, so
(00:56):
there was a lot of screaming and fighting and yelling,
and so was sexually abused throughout my life by multiple people,
both men and women, and raped. I wrote my first
suicide note when I was eight years old. One of
my first attempts was around twelve, and I figured it
was just a matter of like finding the right method.
(01:18):
One of my abusers was my mother's boyfriend, and at
that time I was thirteen, and I finally started standing
up for myself a little bit more and getting a
little feisty and hormonal as teenagers do, and so I
actually ran away from home to get away from the situation,
and my mom called me and said, okay, Harmony, you
can come home. It'll be fine. He's gone. He left,
(01:42):
and I came home, and she actually followed him to
Canada and left my brother and I with twenty dollars
and a book of food stamps. And the food stamps
and the twenty dollars ran out very quickly, and I
remember I would buy tortillas and butter because it was
the cheapest thing that I could get my neighborhood. But
once the money was gone, I started stealing from the
(02:04):
liquor store to support my brother and I, and I remember,
you know, every time I did it, I felt really
afraid that I was going to get caught, and mostly
because I was afraid of what would happen to my
brother if I got arrested and where would he go.
So I would actually have him stand outside on the
corner and just told him if anything happens, if anything
(02:25):
goes wrong, you just run home as fast as you can.
And it was that summer that I became involved with
an older boy in my neighborhood. He would come around
and buy my brother and I food so that we
didn't have to steal it. And he would make me
feel protected in the neighborhood I was in and tell me,
you know, I've got your back, I'll take care of you,
(02:45):
I'm looking out for you, I'll protect you. And really,
that's all I ever wanted from a man was to
feel protected and to feel provided for, and so he
kind of filled that void that I had. And what
ended up happening is I formed a very deep attachment
to him, and I really developed this kind of idea
(03:05):
that I couldn't survive without him, and in some ways
that summer I really did need him to survive, but
the relationship became physically and emotionally abusive. He was my
exploiter and essentially my pimp. That relationship led me to
working in the sex industry at the age of nineteen
as a stripper, and every night came home gave him
(03:25):
all my money, and he actually started using me to
recruit other women from strip club to work for him
as well, and they were giving him their money. And
I remember my first night showing up to the shift
at the strip club. I walked up to the DJ
booth and I'll never forget. He said, what's your name?
(03:47):
And I said Harmony, And he turned around and started
writing my name Harmony in dry erase on the whiteboard
behind him, because that's where they put the list of
girls that were working that night. And seeing it and
white like that really freaked me out. And I remember saying,
take it down, erase it. I'll be Monique. And really,
from that moment developed this persona that was Monique. And
(04:10):
Monique wasn't a real person. She was a lie, and
really it was a mask that helped me to deal
and survive in that environment and separate what I was
doing from who I am, or at least it felt that way.
But she wasn't a real person. She just was a
(04:31):
compilation of other people's fantasies. Monique was whoever the customer
wanted Monique to be. And the problem with that is
that over time I really began to lose sight of
who Harmony was. There's just really this stripping of who
you are and the boundaries that you get to have
as a human being. But you know, it's one of
(04:51):
the things I think, creating an alter ego type thing
that helps us as women who are in those situations
cope and survive, but it also perpetuates the lie because
if if guy were to walk in the club and say, hey,
do you like being here? Do you like what you do?
Monique would say yes, of course, I make great money
(05:13):
and I get exercise, and nobody cared about who Harmony
was or my hopes and dreams and wants and needs
and feelings, because my job was to be what other
people wanted me to be and to not have wants
of my own. The thing is is that a lot
of women, up to ninety percent of us, have a
(05:36):
history of childhood sexual abuse, those of us that end
up in the commercial sex industry, and that's not a coincidence.
When a person is victimized, there's an experience of an
extreme sense of powerlessness over your own body, and in
that moment being victimized. In those moments, you don't get
to say what happens to you. You don't get to
have boundaries or stand up for yourself because you're powerless
(05:58):
in those situations. My history of sexual abuse taught me
to be comfortable with not having boundaries with my body,
and it also made me feel comfortable with being sexualized
and objectified. And those are pretty much job requirements, and
there was a little bit of a void in me
that sometimes the customers filled as well. Even in the
relationship I had with the exploiter, it was all based
(06:22):
on codependency and not having boundaries, and I stayed. I
stayed because I didn't think I was worth more, and
every negative thing he said about me actually just validated
what I already believed to be true about myself. And
I stayed also because that's all I ever saw modeled
in relationships was abuse, and so it was normal to me,
(06:43):
and I honestly thought all men were like that. There
were times I would even think about leaving him, but
I would think, what's the point because at least I
know what sets him off, at least I know what
makes him tick, and I can kind of manage and
navigate this abusive situation. But if I leave him, who
knows who I'm going to end up with. Was in
complete denial and was just so deceived and confused and
(07:05):
hopeless and felt completely trapped. The big catalysts for change
in my life began with a friendship. I met a girl,
and her friendship changed my life. She loved me unconditionally,
she never judged me. I found out that she was
a Christian, and I actually was surprised because I would
(07:28):
have expected her to be maybe judgmental based on my
experiences and the stories my mom told me about her
being discriminated against by Christians growing up. And you know,
she grew up on army bases and was the only
non Christian family there, and the other children weren't allowed
to play with her. So I grew up just thinking
(07:49):
Christians are judgmental and not safe people. So I was
really surprised that this person was a Christian because she
was so loving and kind, and I just felt like
I couldn't lie to her, and so I was honest
with her about the circumstances in my life. I did
tell her I was a stripper, and to my surprise,
that didn't push her away. But also I appreciated that
(08:12):
her friendship with me was not contingent on me going
to church with her. She would take me to coffee
and to ice cream and really just showed genuine care
for me as a human being. And it's because of
that that I finally did feel safe enough and comfortable
enough to go to church with her. And the church
was the last place I wanted to go. I thought,
if there is a God, and I am not convinced
(08:34):
there is, I didn't think he would want anything to
do with someone like me. But I eventually took her
up on her offer after months and months and months,
and went to church, and I just sensed that I
was home, and I really felt like I didn't know much,
but I knew that I wanted to be back there
when the doors were open.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Although Harmony was experiencing new beginnings, the real change in
her life did not occur overnight.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I was still working at the strip, I was still
in the abusive relationship. And one thing I appreciate about
that friend is that she never said, Okay, listen, now
that you're in church, you need to stop cussing, get
off the poll, break up with a boyfriend, put on
some clothes, like here are the things you need to
do to be a Christian. She just really gave space
for the Holy Spirit to do a work in my
heart that eventually led to change in my life. And
(09:21):
I really needed that, because if she had started to
try to control my behavior, then I really think it
would have pushed me away. But she understood that Christianity
and faith in Jesus is not about behavior modification. It's
about heart transformation and that leads to life change.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
When we come back more of this remarkable story, Harmony
dust Grillo's story here on our American stories, and we
(10:09):
returned to our American stories and the story of Harmony
Dust Grillow, and here again is Madison to continue with
this remarkable story.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
After finding a church home where she felt accepted, Harmony,
finally decided it was time to end her abusive relationship
with her exploiter, and one day she built up the
courage to try and get her car back from him.
He had been driving it and keeping it from her
for a while. She asked the youth pastor at her
new church if he would come along with her.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
The youth pastor had no idea what he was getting into.
I just said, hey, can you come help me get
my car back from my boyfriend? And he was like,
oh sure. And we pull up and you know, it's
not a good neighborhood and the youth pastor's kind of
looking around like what is going on? And my ex
boyfriend and he's like, what are you doing here? I said,
I'm here to get my car back and he grabbed
me and he said, no, you're not, and he threw
(11:05):
me against the car and then he said, I'm going
to go upstairs and i'm gonna get my gat and
i'm gonna kill you a gat meaning his gun, and
he's going to kill me. And to me, this whole
interaction was very normal. The youth pastor was freaking out.
So I'm standing there like I need to get my
car back, and the youth Pastor's like, we need to go,
and so finally convinced me to get in the car
and leave, and he called the police, and I'll never
(11:30):
forget there was a female officer and she said, here,
I want you to take this, and she was handing
me a domestic violence brochure and I said I don't
need that and she was like, I want you to
take this and I said I don't need that, and
she set it down on my coffee table, and I
remember when she left, I picked that brochure up. And
(11:51):
I had been in a seven year long abusive relationship,
but it wasn't until that moment that I really realized
that it was an abuse of relationship because I was
in such a deep level of denial. You know, you
see the billboards of domestic violence victims and they all
have black eyes, and I'm like, he never hits me
in the face, and I've never had a black eye,
and therefore this is not domestic violence. But it wasn't
(12:14):
until that moment that I really realized, and I just
lived in denial all of those years about it. I
didn't see him as my exploiter. I didn't see him
as a pimp. I saw him as the love of
my life. Crazy enough, Basically, all of that left me
with this very strong desire to feel a sense of
safety that I never had. And so my life did change.
(12:38):
And it was from that place of just revelation. And
so I remember, for weeks on end, I'm hearing the
pastor talk about the fact that I was created with
a purpose, and I remember being in the strip club
one night and looking around and realizing, if I was
truly created with a purpose, this cannot be it. So
it was from that kind of place that I was
able to walk away from the industry and walk away
(13:01):
from the boyfriend and just really began on this healing journey.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Part of that journey was facing her past harmony, encountered
many troubled people while working at the strip club, but
along the way, she happened to meet one man who
was different, a man in his eighties who seemed to
be just as lonely as she was.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
He was super sweet, very respectful, and gentlemanly man. In fact,
you know, he would pay for table dances and that
sort of thing, But honestly, that's not why he was there.
He was there really mostly for conversation. In fact, sometimes
when I would dance, I watched him avert his eyes,
and he just was more interested in resuming whatever conversation
(13:46):
we had. And he was a widow. His wife died
and they had been married almost fifty years, and he
missed her terribly, and he would come into the club.
It started out one night a week, two nights a week.
By the end it was like three or four nights
a week, and you know, spend a few hundred dollars
each time just for my company. And I remember thinking,
(14:07):
if I had met him under different circumstances. He was
such a sweet and kind man, that what would it
look like if he and my grandmother could offer each
other companionship. When I finally quit stripping, he was really
the only person that I felt not that I owed
an explanation to, but I didn't want to just disappear.
(14:28):
I wanted to let him know what was happening and
that I was leaving, because I know that our relationship,
however odd and strange it was, was a big part
of his life. And I called his house, someone else
answered the phone. I ended up finding out that he
was in the hospital, that in that period of time
that I quit, he just so happened to have a
(14:49):
heart attack, and so I decided to go and visit
him in the hospital to say a proper goodbye. I
kind of felt like it was the right thing to do.
He was not well, tell he was not well, and
you know, I sat with him and I told him
that I was leaving the industry, and he was like,
good for you, sweetie, and he was really supportive and kind,
and I didn't know what I could give him, but
(15:11):
I just offered to pray with him, and at the
end of the day, he wanted to have a relationship
with Jesus. So I was able to pray with him
that day and say an official goodbye. And it's not
like I experienced that a lot with the men where
I experienced them is just really kind people, but with
him it was different. Eventually, I got to a point
(15:34):
where I realized that all the pain that I had
gone through, that there could be purpose in it, and
that it wasn't just about me. And I found myself
sitting across the street from the strip club where I
used to work and was praying for the women, and
then realized, like, Okay, it's great to pray, but I
have to do something because there are women in there
(15:56):
there that are feeling as trapped as I did. And
so I started writing written notes to give to them
to put on their cars because I knew where they parked.
The very first note that I left on the car
of a woman at the strip club where I used
to work, said something to the effect of, HI, my
name is Harmony. I used to work here too, and
I just want to let you know that you're not
(16:16):
alone and there's a place for you. And then it
was really in that moment that the whole vision of
Treasures was birthed.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Treasures is an outreach group that supports women who are
working in the sex industry that meets these women where
they are and helps to provide them with a way
out if they wanted. This effort is led by women
who were previously in the same situation.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So that's what I've been doing for the past fifteen years.
It's just amazing because all of that as a result
of me being willing to let God use my story
and the pain from my past to reach and help
other people.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Over the years, Harmony has written a lot of cards.
One response came from a woman who had had many
doors shut in her face. She asked Harmony for guidance
and where she should turn next.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I encouraged her to connect with the local church because
that was a really positive experience for me, and I
naively hoped and thought that it would be the same
for her to get some community wrapped around her. And
she showed up at the church, and she went to
the altar to get prayer, and it happened to be
the pastor's wife, and she told the pastor's wife, you
know a single mom, I've been working as a prostitute.
(17:27):
She had been trafficked but was now an adult who
was working on her own as a prostitute. And the
pastor's wife said, I really wish you weren't telling me
this this is making me very uncomfortable. And she was
really giving the benefit of the doubt to the church.
So she actually went to the church with her child
the next week, and when she showed up to check
her child into children's ministry, they said, you and your
(17:48):
child are not welcome here. If the pastor's wife or
anyone in that congregation truly understood the kind of situation
that led her into those circumstances, they could have responded
with compassion and maybe even more helpful. And so I'm
really passionate about training and educating and equipping people so
that they can respond in ways that are helpful and
(18:10):
loving and kind. And we have seen some incredible stories.
And I really am at a place in my life
where I never want to go through all the things
that I've been through again ever. Ever, I never want
to be abused again. I never want to experience all
that trauma again. But what I can confidently say is
(18:32):
that I wouldn't trade any of it for the person
that I've become in the process. All things really can
work together for good if we let them, if we're
willing to surrender to that process. So I got to
a point where I realized that all the pain that
I had gone through, that there could be purpose in it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And great job to Madison for bringing us that story.
And to learn more about what Harmony and or her
team do, visit IAmA treasure dot com. All the pain
I'd gone through, there was a purpose in it, she said.
It isn't all about me. A beautiful story about love, redemption,
about God and faith. Harmony dust Grillo's story here on
(19:18):
our American Stories
Speaker 2 (19:21):
The Lone
This is our American Stories, and you're about to hear
an incredible story of hope and redemption. Here's Madison to
bring you the story.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You might think that it would be crazy that an intelligent, beautiful,
and driven girl would enter the sex industry. It might
make a little more sense if we heard a bit
about her childhood.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I was raised in a pretty violent neighborhood and a
really chaotic home in the neighborhood I grew up in.
Domino's wouldn't deliver a pizza after dark, and the police
actually wouldn't even come to my house after dark. My
mother and my stepdad had a very tumultuous relationship, so
(00:56):
there was a lot of screaming and fighting and yelling,
and so was sexually abused throughout my life by multiple people,
both men and women, and raped. I wrote my first
suicide note when I was eight years old. One of
my first attempts was around twelve, and I figured it
was just a matter of like finding the right method.
(01:18):
One of my abusers was my mother's boyfriend, and at
that time I was thirteen, and I finally started standing
up for myself a little bit more and getting a
little feisty and hormonal as teenagers do, and so I
actually ran away from home to get away from the situation,
and my mom called me and said, okay, Harmony, you
can come home. It'll be fine. He's gone. He left,
(01:42):
and I came home, and she actually followed him to
Canada and left my brother and I with twenty dollars
and a book of food stamps. And the food stamps
and the twenty dollars ran out very quickly, and I
remember I would buy tortillas and butter because it was
the cheapest thing that I could get my neighborhood. But
once the money was gone, I started stealing from the
(02:04):
liquor store to support my brother and I, and I remember,
you know, every time I did it, I felt really
afraid that I was going to get caught, and mostly
because I was afraid of what would happen to my
brother if I got arrested and where would he go.
So I would actually have him stand outside on the
corner and just told him if anything happens, if anything
(02:25):
goes wrong, you just run home as fast as you can.
And it was that summer that I became involved with
an older boy in my neighborhood. He would come around
and buy my brother and I food so that we
didn't have to steal it. And he would make me
feel protected in the neighborhood I was in and tell me,
you know, I've got your back, I'll take care of you,
(02:45):
I'm looking out for you, I'll protect you. And really,
that's all I ever wanted from a man was to
feel protected and to feel provided for, and so he
kind of filled that void that I had. And what
ended up happening is I formed a very deep attachment
to him, and I really developed this kind of idea
(03:05):
that I couldn't survive without him, and in some ways
that summer I really did need him to survive, but
the relationship became physically and emotionally abusive. He was my
exploiter and essentially my pimp. That relationship led me to
working in the sex industry at the age of nineteen
as a stripper, and every night came home gave him
(03:25):
all my money, and he actually started using me to
recruit other women from strip club to work for him
as well, and they were giving him their money. And
I remember my first night showing up to the shift
at the strip club. I walked up to the DJ
booth and I'll never forget. He said, what's your name?
(03:47):
And I said Harmony, And he turned around and started
writing my name Harmony in dry erase on the whiteboard
behind him, because that's where they put the list of
girls that were working that night. And seeing it and
white like that really freaked me out. And I remember saying,
take it down, erase it. I'll be Monique. And really,
from that moment developed this persona that was Monique. And
(04:10):
Monique wasn't a real person. She was a lie, and
really it was a mask that helped me to deal
and survive in that environment and separate what I was
doing from who I am, or at least it felt that way.
But she wasn't a real person. She just was a
(04:31):
compilation of other people's fantasies. Monique was whoever the customer
wanted Monique to be. And the problem with that is
that over time I really began to lose sight of
who Harmony was. There's just really this stripping of who
you are and the boundaries that you get to have
as a human being. But you know, it's one of
(04:51):
the things I think, creating an alter ego type thing
that helps us as women who are in those situations
cope and survive, but it also perpetuates the lie because
if if guy were to walk in the club and say, hey,
do you like being here? Do you like what you do?
Monique would say yes, of course, I make great money
(05:13):
and I get exercise, and nobody cared about who Harmony
was or my hopes and dreams and wants and needs
and feelings, because my job was to be what other
people wanted me to be and to not have wants
of my own. The thing is is that a lot
of women, up to ninety percent of us, have a
(05:36):
history of childhood sexual abuse, those of us that end
up in the commercial sex industry, and that's not a coincidence.
When a person is victimized, there's an experience of an
extreme sense of powerlessness over your own body, and in
that moment being victimized. In those moments, you don't get
to say what happens to you. You don't get to
have boundaries or stand up for yourself because you're powerless
(05:58):
in those situations. My history of sexual abuse taught me
to be comfortable with not having boundaries with my body,
and it also made me feel comfortable with being sexualized
and objectified. And those are pretty much job requirements, and
there was a little bit of a void in me
that sometimes the customers filled as well. Even in the
relationship I had with the exploiter, it was all based
(06:22):
on codependency and not having boundaries, and I stayed. I
stayed because I didn't think I was worth more, and
every negative thing he said about me actually just validated
what I already believed to be true about myself. And
I stayed also because that's all I ever saw modeled
in relationships was abuse, and so it was normal to me,
(06:43):
and I honestly thought all men were like that. There
were times I would even think about leaving him, but
I would think, what's the point because at least I
know what sets him off, at least I know what
makes him tick, and I can kind of manage and
navigate this abusive situation. But if I leave him, who
knows who I'm going to end up with. Was in
complete denial and was just so deceived and confused and
(07:05):
hopeless and felt completely trapped. The big catalysts for change
in my life began with a friendship. I met a girl,
and her friendship changed my life. She loved me unconditionally,
she never judged me. I found out that she was
a Christian, and I actually was surprised because I would
(07:28):
have expected her to be maybe judgmental based on my
experiences and the stories my mom told me about her
being discriminated against by Christians growing up. And you know,
she grew up on army bases and was the only
non Christian family there, and the other children weren't allowed
to play with her. So I grew up just thinking
(07:49):
Christians are judgmental and not safe people. So I was
really surprised that this person was a Christian because she
was so loving and kind, and I just felt like
I couldn't lie to her, and so I was honest
with her about the circumstances in my life. I did
tell her I was a stripper, and to my surprise,
that didn't push her away. But also I appreciated that
(08:12):
her friendship with me was not contingent on me going
to church with her. She would take me to coffee
and to ice cream and really just showed genuine care
for me as a human being. And it's because of
that that I finally did feel safe enough and comfortable
enough to go to church with her. And the church
was the last place I wanted to go. I thought,
if there is a God, and I am not convinced
(08:34):
there is, I didn't think he would want anything to
do with someone like me. But I eventually took her
up on her offer after months and months and months,
and went to church, and I just sensed that I
was home, and I really felt like I didn't know much,
but I knew that I wanted to be back there
when the doors were open.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Although Harmony was experiencing new beginnings, the real change in
her life did not occur overnight.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I was still working at the strip, I was still
in the abusive relationship. And one thing I appreciate about
that friend is that she never said, Okay, listen, now
that you're in church, you need to stop cussing, get
off the poll, break up with a boyfriend, put on
some clothes, like here are the things you need to
do to be a Christian. She just really gave space
for the Holy Spirit to do a work in my
heart that eventually led to change in my life. And
(09:21):
I really needed that, because if she had started to
try to control my behavior, then I really think it
would have pushed me away. But she understood that Christianity
and faith in Jesus is not about behavior modification. It's
about heart transformation and that leads to life change.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
When we come back more of this remarkable story, Harmony
dust Grillo's story here on our American stories, and we
(10:09):
returned to our American stories and the story of Harmony
Dust Grillow, and here again is Madison to continue with
this remarkable story.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
After finding a church home where she felt accepted, Harmony,
finally decided it was time to end her abusive relationship
with her exploiter, and one day she built up the
courage to try and get her car back from him.
He had been driving it and keeping it from her
for a while. She asked the youth pastor at her
new church if he would come along with her.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
The youth pastor had no idea what he was getting into.
I just said, hey, can you come help me get
my car back from my boyfriend? And he was like,
oh sure. And we pull up and you know, it's
not a good neighborhood and the youth pastor's kind of
looking around like what is going on? And my ex
boyfriend and he's like, what are you doing here? I said,
I'm here to get my car back and he grabbed
me and he said, no, you're not, and he threw
(11:05):
me against the car and then he said, I'm going
to go upstairs and i'm gonna get my gat and
i'm gonna kill you a gat meaning his gun, and
he's going to kill me. And to me, this whole
interaction was very normal. The youth pastor was freaking out.
So I'm standing there like I need to get my
car back, and the youth Pastor's like, we need to go,
and so finally convinced me to get in the car
and leave, and he called the police, and I'll never
(11:30):
forget there was a female officer and she said, here,
I want you to take this, and she was handing
me a domestic violence brochure and I said I don't
need that and she was like, I want you to
take this and I said I don't need that, and
she set it down on my coffee table, and I
remember when she left, I picked that brochure up. And
(11:51):
I had been in a seven year long abusive relationship,
but it wasn't until that moment that I really realized
that it was an abuse of relationship because I was
in such a deep level of denial. You know, you
see the billboards of domestic violence victims and they all
have black eyes, and I'm like, he never hits me
in the face, and I've never had a black eye,
and therefore this is not domestic violence. But it wasn't
(12:14):
until that moment that I really realized, and I just
lived in denial all of those years about it. I
didn't see him as my exploiter. I didn't see him
as a pimp. I saw him as the love of
my life. Crazy enough, Basically, all of that left me
with this very strong desire to feel a sense of
safety that I never had. And so my life did change.
(12:38):
And it was from that place of just revelation. And
so I remember, for weeks on end, I'm hearing the
pastor talk about the fact that I was created with
a purpose, and I remember being in the strip club
one night and looking around and realizing, if I was
truly created with a purpose, this cannot be it. So
it was from that kind of place that I was
able to walk away from the industry and walk away
(13:01):
from the boyfriend and just really began on this healing journey.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Part of that journey was facing her past harmony, encountered
many troubled people while working at the strip club, but
along the way, she happened to meet one man who
was different, a man in his eighties who seemed to
be just as lonely as she was.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
He was super sweet, very respectful, and gentlemanly man. In fact,
you know, he would pay for table dances and that
sort of thing, But honestly, that's not why he was there.
He was there really mostly for conversation. In fact, sometimes
when I would dance, I watched him avert his eyes,
and he just was more interested in resuming whatever conversation
(13:46):
we had. And he was a widow. His wife died
and they had been married almost fifty years, and he
missed her terribly, and he would come into the club.
It started out one night a week, two nights a week.
By the end it was like three or four nights
a week, and you know, spend a few hundred dollars
each time just for my company. And I remember thinking,
(14:07):
if I had met him under different circumstances. He was
such a sweet and kind man, that what would it
look like if he and my grandmother could offer each
other companionship. When I finally quit stripping, he was really
the only person that I felt not that I owed
an explanation to, but I didn't want to just disappear.
(14:28):
I wanted to let him know what was happening and
that I was leaving, because I know that our relationship,
however odd and strange it was, was a big part
of his life. And I called his house, someone else
answered the phone. I ended up finding out that he
was in the hospital, that in that period of time
that I quit, he just so happened to have a
(14:49):
heart attack, and so I decided to go and visit
him in the hospital to say a proper goodbye. I
kind of felt like it was the right thing to do.
He was not well, tell he was not well, and
you know, I sat with him and I told him
that I was leaving the industry, and he was like,
good for you, sweetie, and he was really supportive and kind,
and I didn't know what I could give him, but
(15:11):
I just offered to pray with him, and at the
end of the day, he wanted to have a relationship
with Jesus. So I was able to pray with him
that day and say an official goodbye. And it's not
like I experienced that a lot with the men where
I experienced them is just really kind people, but with
him it was different. Eventually, I got to a point
(15:34):
where I realized that all the pain that I had
gone through, that there could be purpose in it, and
that it wasn't just about me. And I found myself
sitting across the street from the strip club where I
used to work and was praying for the women, and
then realized, like, Okay, it's great to pray, but I
have to do something because there are women in there
(15:56):
there that are feeling as trapped as I did. And
so I started writing written notes to give to them
to put on their cars because I knew where they parked.
The very first note that I left on the car
of a woman at the strip club where I used
to work, said something to the effect of, HI, my
name is Harmony. I used to work here too, and
I just want to let you know that you're not
(16:16):
alone and there's a place for you. And then it
was really in that moment that the whole vision of
Treasures was birthed.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Treasures is an outreach group that supports women who are
working in the sex industry that meets these women where
they are and helps to provide them with a way
out if they wanted. This effort is led by women
who were previously in the same situation.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
So that's what I've been doing for the past fifteen years.
It's just amazing because all of that as a result
of me being willing to let God use my story
and the pain from my past to reach and help
other people.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Over the years, Harmony has written a lot of cards.
One response came from a woman who had had many
doors shut in her face. She asked Harmony for guidance
and where she should turn next.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
I encouraged her to connect with the local church because
that was a really positive experience for me, and I
naively hoped and thought that it would be the same
for her to get some community wrapped around her. And
she showed up at the church, and she went to
the altar to get prayer, and it happened to be
the pastor's wife, and she told the pastor's wife, you
know a single mom, I've been working as a prostitute.
(17:27):
She had been trafficked but was now an adult who
was working on her own as a prostitute. And the
pastor's wife said, I really wish you weren't telling me
this this is making me very uncomfortable. And she was
really giving the benefit of the doubt to the church.
So she actually went to the church with her child
the next week, and when she showed up to check
her child into children's ministry, they said, you and your
(17:48):
child are not welcome here. If the pastor's wife or
anyone in that congregation truly understood the kind of situation
that led her into those circumstances, they could have responded
with compassion and maybe even more helpful. And so I'm
really passionate about training and educating and equipping people so
that they can respond in ways that are helpful and
(18:10):
loving and kind. And we have seen some incredible stories.
And I really am at a place in my life
where I never want to go through all the things
that I've been through again ever. Ever, I never want
to be abused again. I never want to experience all
that trauma again. But what I can confidently say is
(18:32):
that I wouldn't trade any of it for the person
that I've become in the process. All things really can
work together for good if we let them, if we're
willing to surrender to that process. So I got to
a point where I realized that all the pain that
I had gone through, that there could be purpose in it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
And great job to Madison for bringing us that story.
And to learn more about what Harmony and or her
team do, visit IAmA treasure dot com. All the pain
I'd gone through, there was a purpose in it, she said.
It isn't all about me. A beautiful story about love, redemption,
about God and faith. Harmony dust Grillo's story here on
(19:18):
our American Stories
Speaker 2 (19:21):
The Lone
Host
Lee Habeeb
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