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For years, Coach Dotty Vazquez carried a story she never imagined sharing publicly.
Today, the Lehigh Valley author, life coach, entrepreneur, and advocate is sharing it in They Turned a Blind Eye, a memoir that explores childhood trauma, addiction, homelessness, healing, and ultimately, hope.
But as Vazquez makes clear, this isn’t a book about remaining trapped by the past.
“I didn’t write this book for sympathy,” she said. “I wrote it because I know what it feels like to think you’re alone,” she said. “If my story makes one person feel seen or gives them the courage to ask for help, then it was worth every uncomfortable page.”
Known throughout the Lehigh Valley as Coach Dotty, and by many as the “Singing Sander” through her hardwood floor refinishing business, (she makes a surprise appearance in one of our Podcast episodes in a photo) Vazquez says every role she fills today shares the same purpose: helping people believe their past doesn’t have to define their future.
There was never a perfect time to tell her story.
“Honestly, I don’t know if there ever would’ve been a ‘right’ time,” she said. “Telling your story is scary, especially when it’s the parts of your life you’ve spent years trying to hide.”
Eventually, she realized that staying silent wasn’t helping anyone.
Coach Dotty Vazquez
“This book isn’t about staying stuck in my past,” she said. “It’s about showing people that your past doesn’t get the final say. Healing is possible, and I’m living proof of that.”
Even the title, They Turned a Blind Eye, is meant to make readers stop and think.
“The title came to me because that’s exactly what happened,” she said. “People saw the signs, heard the cries, or had enough reason to ask questions, and they chose not to. But this isn’t just my story. It’s about every survivor who’s ever felt invisible.”
She hopes readers leave with a simple but important question: What can I do to make sure I never turn a blind eye?
While the memoir shares painful experiences from her childhood and the struggles that followed, Vazquez says the hardest chapters weren’t the ones about abuse.
“The hardest chapters weren’t even about the abuse,” she said. “They were the ones where I had to call myself out.”
Writing honestly about addiction, accountability, and the ways trauma affected her life proved more difficult than describing the trauma itself.
“I promised myself from the beginning that I wasn’t going to write a book that made me look good,” she said. “I was going to write a book that was honest.”
That same honesty shapes the way she approaches coaching today.
“I didn’t become Coach Dotty because I had all the answers,” she said. “I became Coach Dotty because I know what it’s like to feel lost, broken, and like nobody understands what you’re carrying.”
For Vazquez, the Lehigh Valley has been part of every chapter of that journey.
“The Lehigh Valley has watched me grow up, make mistakes, hit rock bottom, and rebuild my life,” she said. “It’s where I found my footing again. It’s where I built my foundation, found my voice, and realized that my past didn’t have to define me.”
She hopes that by sharing her story locally, others might realize their own story isn’t over either.
“If my community can watch someone go from surviving to thriving,” she said, “maybe it reminds someone else that they can too.”
More than anything, Vazquez wants They Turned a Blind Eye to start conversations that too often never happen.
“I want people to stop asking, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ and start asking, ‘What happened to you?'” she said. “That one question has the power to change someone’s life.”
Since the book’s release, those conversations have already begun.
“The biggest thing people keep saying is, ‘I felt like you were telling my story,'” she said. “That hits me every single time because it reminds me that none of us are as alone as we think we are.”
Those moments, she says, matter far more than sales numbers.
“I didn’t write this book to become an author. I wrote it because I wanted people to feel seen.”
For anyone still carrying trauma in silence, Vazquez offers one message above all else.
“What happened to you is not your fault, but your healing is your responsibility,” she said. “Your trauma is part of your story, but it doesn’t get to hold the pen anymore. You do.”
When asked what success would look like a year from now, her answer had little to do with bestseller lists.
“I’ll measure it by how many lives it touched,” she said. “If this book starts conversations families have been avoiding, helps people understand trauma a little better, or gives even one person the strength to keep going, then it’s done exactly what I hoped it would.”
They Turned a Blind Eye is available now in paperback and Kindle editions.
Learn more or purchase a copy on Amazon:
https://a.co/d/012scc8i
For Coach Dotty Vazquez, this memoir is more than the story of what she’s survived. It’s a reminder that healing is possible, hope can be found, and no one has to face their journey alone.
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