Many people know Missy Robertson from her role on the A&E show “Duck Dynasty.” The Louisiana native, and wife of Jase Robertson, is also a philanthropist and a woman of faith, who has helped people in dire circumstances transform their lives.
One of Laminin’s most incredible stories of transformation has been that of Brandy Cox, who from a young age was abandoned and betrayed by all those she trusted. Brandy eventually found hope in the strangest of places: prison, and went on to rebuild her life through working at Laminin and caring for her daughter, whom she fittingly named Faith.
Years after the horrendous events that transpired, she explained to Missy Robertson how it all happened and how she moved forward.
To say that Brandy Cox never had a chance as a child would be an understatement. Cox’s earliest memories involve not knowing who her real parents were, as she and her younger brother were shuttled between carers. Her grandparents’ attempts to tell her that she was actually their child backfired when her biological mother showed up one day when Cox was 10 years old.
Describing her mom as the only one “being honest” to her, she and her brother had agreed to go live with her. But appearances were deceiving. Within days, her mom and stepdad were getting her to smoke marijuana, and once they had custody several weeks later, things went from bad to worse.
“They were tying my hands and feet to the bed and shooting dope in my arm and raping me,” Cox explained. “They would sell me to the pimp, they would take me to truck stops to provide for their drugs.” This incredible betrayal destroyed the young girl, who found herself in a cycle of abuse and addiction.
As she explained to Robertson, as horrible as it all was, the fact that her mother was one of the perpetrators made it the absolute worst. “This was ‘love.’ This was the lady that gave birth to me that says ‘I love you,’ that was doing these things,” she explained. She learned how little she was worth to them, all of which took a toll on her physically as well as emotionally.
“I would go days without being able to shower,” she said. “I had sores all over my body from them shooting me up. I was a toothpick.”
After “taking care” of her mother’s drug habit until she was 16, Brandy Cox set out on her own. With the burden of everything she had experienced, she eventually skipped out of school. “I just quit going, because what’s the point,” she recalled.
Yet, she was unable to leave her previous lifestyle behind. “I was pretty much a pro by the end of it, about how to manipulate and lie and steal and cheat,” she said. This eventually led her into a relationship with a drug kingpin, who became the father of her child.
At eight months into her pregnancy, Cox knew that she wanted her daughter to grow up in a different world than the one she had. When she summoned the courage to leave the dealer, he beat her brutally, leaving her for dead on the street.
She was discovered and arrested by police for outstanding charges and had her daughter taken away from her two months after her birth. Cox described that as the moment she decided to change her life. “I actually made the steps and moves toward doing that after she was born [as] I was looking at my daughter through a glass window and I couldn’t touch her,” she said.
It turned out prison proved to be where she finally found solace within a group of Christian prisoners whom she had previously harassed. They helped her get on the road to recovery through faith.
Upon her release, taking care of her daughter became her number one priority. “God knew exactly what I needed and it was to become important to somebody,” Cox explained. “I was going to and was willing to do whatever it took for me and her. I’ve got to be honest, at first it wasn’t so much for me as it was for her.”
In the last stages of her recovery, Cox spent time working at Laminin, helping others like her. For the first time, she found women who knew what she had been through. “It’s easy to tell someone ‘I know how you feel’ and not know [anything],” she shared. Laminin gave her the chance that nobody else was willing to give.
Now, having graduated from Louisiana Delta Community College, Cox is married, is raising her daughter, and is a team member at New Life Recovery, helping others fight addiction. Her own struggles are not entirely behind her, yet she is letting them remain in the past. “I’ve put it behind me and I’m not using it as my identity anymore because I don’t live there,” she said.
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