At the age of 35, Fran “Tiny” Fidler has a breakdown of sorts after a long day at work and having enjoyed a few "pops" getting ready to head home. Tiny finds himself unexpectedly running from a cop during an off-duty "check and see" stop. After the cop asks Fran to come over and talk with him, Fran hears a voice inside, saying, “I’m not going back,” and he starts to move, thinking to himself, “I just gotta get away. I can’t live with this pain and bs anymore!”

Now running and stumbling toward the breaking waves of the Gulf of Mexico, I stumble and fall again, and my heart is in my throat. Adrenaline is racing. Why am I running? My arrest provides a watershed moment in my life. I am a single dad with a 21-month-old son. Now what?

So begins my life of healing, changing, growing up, and forgiving. I will come to understand what going "back” really means: back to my childhood, back to the tough streets of South Boston, back to the foster home, the debilitating stutter, the verbal and physical abuse of an alcoholic mother, an absent father, and back to the repeated memory of a little boy who is forced to endure an unspeakable crime at the hands of a family member for years. 

Tiny’s Wall is the story of my undiscovered faith and a testament to perseverance, the will to live, to forgive, and find love. I accepted God's grace and mercy for my life, and I hope I can help someone else.