Linda's Healing Journey

Linda’s Story | The Fierce Heart Behind Petunia

Linda Overmyer is a sexual assault survivor, a woman of faith, and the real-life heart behind

Petunia the Bull.

Her story carries pain that should never have been hers to bear. She knows what it is to be harmed, silenced, misunderstood, and left to carry wounds that changed the course of her life.

But Linda’s story did not end with what was done to her.

She survived.

She kept going through the fear, the grief, the anger, the questions, and the long work of learning how to live beyond the pain. Survival did not erase the wounds, but it revealed a strength in her that no one could take away.

Today, Linda is also fighting serious health challenges. Some days require more from her body than others will ever see. Yet she continues to serve, encourage, create, support survivors, and stand beside the mission of End Silence, Inc.

She serves with tenderness, but she also serves with fierceness.

That is where Petunia comes from.

Petunia reflects the part of Linda that is gentle but not weak, wounded but not defeated, loving but no longer willing to be silenced. She carries the scars of what happened to her, but she also carries courage, faith, compassion, and a refusal to let cruelty have the final word.

Linda’s survival is not a neat or simple story. It is a story of continuing to rise while carrying pain, illness, memory, and responsibility. It is the story of a woman who has every reason to stop showing up, yet still chooses to help someone else feel less alone.

She survived what tried to break her.

She is still fighting.

She is still serving.

And she carries the fierce heart of Petunia.

Her wounds are part of her story, but they are not the measure of her worth.

Every Piece Has Purpose.