About The Author

Billie Jo Kidder is the author of Can You Relate?, a deeply personal memoir that chronicles a lifetime of hardship, survival, and redemption. Through remarkable vulnerability, she recounts the experiences that shaped her life, beginning with a childhood rooted in family, horses, and the open countryside of Oregon before a series of traumatic events dramatically changed its course.

As her story unfolds, Billie shares the lasting impact of divorce, sexual assault, addiction, bulimia, depression, repeated suicide attempts, imprisonment, devastating personal loss, and the physical challenges of living with essential tremors. She writes about these experiences without minimizing the pain or avoiding responsibility for the choices she made along the way, allowing readers to witness both the consequences of addiction and the difficult work required for recovery.

One of the defining moments of her journey came through deep brain stimulation surgery, which helped restore abilities that essential tremors had gradually taken away. Combined with renewed faith, personal accountability, and a commitment to sobriety, this became part of a larger transformation that reshaped her future.

Billie’s purpose in sharing her story extends beyond recounting difficult memories. She hopes readers struggling with addiction, trauma, grief, depression, or feelings of hopelessness will recognize that recovery is possible, even after years of setbacks. Through honesty, resilience, and compassion, Can You Relate? offers encouragement to anyone searching for strength, forgiveness, and the courage to keep moving forward, one day at a time.