TUCSON, Ariz. — Rebecca Black remembers being on the operating table like it was yesterday.
"In 2014, when my right ovary ruptured and nobody knew it was my ovary I was in the worst pain I'd been in," Black said. "I couldn't stay up straight, and when they finally got me back from the MRI, they had to physically force me to try and stand up straight."
The pain she felt that day was only the beginning. After multiple surgeries that began in 2014, old memories from her abusive childhood started creeping back into her mind.
"It was just a lot of things that happened that kept me continuously down and unable to physically work or gain my wits about me even," Black said.
Her doctors recommended she start journaling her thoughts, which lead to her new memoir -- 'Facing the Elephants'.
"Writing about my experiences which then transformed into stories," Black said.
It was the experience she had volunteering with elephants at the Reid Park Zoo that gave her a sense of hope.
"I think the first time I ever really saw an elephant there was just some sort of a fantasy that started in my head about how magically they must be," Black said. "How beautiful they are, and how they're big and strong and gentle at the same time, and so loving in their own family."
The elephants became part of her family, and with the sense of hope they gave her, she hopes her new book can give someone else that same feeling.
"I hope I can inspire people," Black said. "Mostly, with my book, I really hope that I can touch someone who is somebody that's been through something I've been through, and can say 'I'm not the only one who felt that way.'"
