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What happens when every dream you've had shatters before your eyes? Gina Economopoulos never imagined her life's path would lead from bartending to twelve years in a convent, then to finding her fiancé dead a month before their wedding day. Yet through these devastating losses, something remarkable emerged.
Gina's raw, honest conversation reveals the soul-crushing moments when faith seems impossible. "When my mother died, I literally died," she shares, describing the spiritual void that launched her search for meaning. Her subsequent journey through religious life, rejection, grief, and ultimately alcoholism paints a portrait of a woman continually forced to "shake the dust off her feet and walk" – a biblical inspiration that later became the title of her memoir.
The turning point came unexpectedly in an AA meeting, where Gina discovered her own alcoholism while seeking to understand her late fiancé's struggles. This revelation began her road to recovery and a transformed relationship with faith. "God did for me what I couldn't do for myself," she reflects, describing the gradual rebuilding of trust in divine purpose despite her suffering.
Today, Gina channels her experiences as an end-of-life doula, bringing comfort and dignity to those in their final days. Her work embodies the full-circle nature of her journey – from questioning God at her mother's deathbed to now helping others transition peacefully, regardless of their beliefs.
Gina's story offers profound hope for anyone facing seemingly insurmountable challenges. Her message isn't about avoiding pain but finding purpose through it: "You're not alone. Do not give up." Connect with Gina through her website GinaEcon.com or find her book "Shake the Dust Off Your Feet and Walk" on Amazon.
www.GinaEcon.com
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Thank You for Listening, I hope you enjoyed this episode and that it encouraged you. Please like, share, and leave a review.
00:29 - Meet Gina Campiopolis
04:49 - Early Life and Mother's Passing
11:01 - Twelve Years as a Catholic Nun
14:46 - Life After the Convent
19:56 - Finding Sobriety and Faith Again
26:34 - Work as an End-of-Life Doula
31:16 - Shake the Dust Off Your Feet
35:29 - Message of Hope and Closing
WEBVTT
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Hello everyone, thanks again for joining me on another episode of the Dorsuos show.
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Today we have a special guest with us.
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Her name is Gina in Campiopolis.
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She was born in Syracuse, new York, to a strong Italian and Greek loving family.
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She graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University and bartended before embarking on a 12-year convent journey after her mother's passing, settled on the Jersey Shore, gina now works as an end-of-life doula, extending a compassionate heart to those in their final chapter.
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She found solace and sobriety as a proud Alcoholics Anonymous member, and her story of resilience through tragedy and faith inspires others to face life challenges.
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Gina, thank you so much for coming on the show today, well thank you for having me.
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It's a joy and a pleasure to be with you today.
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Absolutely Well.
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I'd like to open up with some icebreaker questions, and today's icebreaker question is did you, what did you want to be when you were a kid, and why?
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Okay, when I was a kid, I wanted to grow up and get married at the age of 18, have five kids.
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By that time I turned 25.
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I just wanted to be a house mom, a house mom and a wife, because, just from growing up in a large family and seeing my parents, the love they have, and that's what I wanted to do.
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So Did that happen?
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Oh, of course not.
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You know what they say.
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Yeah, that was not.
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I did not realize that was not in my plan or in God's plan for me.
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I should say I thought it was my plan because that's what I wanted, like every little girl, right, I was not very ambitious to go and work, I just wanted to have a large family.
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What would you like to speak about today on the show?
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Is there anything specific that you want to talk about?
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Really nothing specific.
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Well, I guess you know giving the message of hope and strength, and because in my life I've been through a lot of like we all have right, we all have a story to tell.
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Like we all have right, we all have a story to tell and I guess to share in my story is that how I never gave up Perseverance, just kept moving forward and then, in the long run, it took a while for me in hindsight to say, wow, God was with me every step of the way, whether I realized it or not, God was with me every step of the way, whether I realized it or not, which, most of the time when I was in that pain and suffering, transition time of that darkness, you know where is God?
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Who is God?
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So my journey was like not knowing God, knowing God, not liking him and now loving him.
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So whatever you'd like me to share, I'd be more than happy to share.
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Well, you just mentioned your story.
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Can you share with us a little bit about your story, to myself and to my audience?
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Yes, I can.
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As you had shared, I was born on Long Island.
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Like I said, I was from one of eight kids, the seventh child, a great childhood, unconditional love for my parents, went to college, got a four-year degree and, of course, I was raised Catholic.
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I received all my sacraments, but yet, once I went to college, I didn't need God, I didn't need the church, not that I didn't believe.
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I just was one of those.
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To be honest with you, I was searching for love and acceptance in all the wrong places.
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I wasn't really comfortable in my own skin.
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To be honest, I didn't like myself.
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In hindsight, I was insecure.
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So you know, as a child growing up being insecure, yes, I got the love from my parents, which I know it was God, now God's love, but yet I was just searching for the material things, for the, you know, for other things, like I said, in all the wrong places.
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So so I went through college, I got a degree in social work and, as well as I became a great pool shark, and so that was like my, yes, my two degrees, and at that point my life was like, oh, I wanted to have fun in life, just have fun.
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And so I went to go live with my family.
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My parents moved from Long Island, pennsylvania, harrisburg, the capital, over there, and so I went to go live with them and I had to get a job.
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And so I got a bartending job because it was social work.
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It was in that scene that I felt very comfortable in.
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Like, everybody knew me, I have a personality plus, so I was able to talk to everyone.
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But as a bartender it's like, like I said, like a social worker, they come in, share your problems and then you kind of like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.
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Then you take their money and you let them go.
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You don't have to deal with paperwork, you don't have to deal with the government, which I, to be honest with you, I was not a, I'm not good in paperwork or government, or I barely graduated from college, but yet, you know, god had carried me through all that.
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And then, as I'm bartending now, I have a new goal in life, and my new goal is that I'm going to be working the hospitality field, you know, work on a cruise line, the love boat, like a cruise director, yes, and because I guess I was looking for the easy way, life, you know, just to have fun, and so I did.
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I applied to cruise lines and but during that time my mother was diagnosed with cancer, with bone cancer, and she was given four to six months to live terminally ill.
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And this was back in 1991.
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And it just so happens that I was home.
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I was home when she had this diagnosis.
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All of my other seven siblings were on their own, like whether they were married.
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My younger brother went off to college, so I wasn't going to leave my father with my mom in this condition, so I stayed.
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It wasn't a hard choice.
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I just because the love I have for my parents and I did and I stayed and I took care of my mom with my dad and that's where prayer came back into my life, that's where going back to church and that's where I was bargaining with God.
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If I pray this, heal my mom.
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If I pray this, heal my mom.
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But ultimately, like I said, she had bone cancer.
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So she died in five months and I was 23 years old and when she died I literally died.
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I didn't have any faith, I didn't have any hope, I didn't have any love and I didn't have any God in my life like a relationship.
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I knew who God was, but not in a relationship.
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So I did searching because at the wake, everyone kept saying she's with God, she's with God.
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And I was like, who is this God person?
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And why did he take my mom?
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So I went back into the church to say, hey, you know, god, I don't want to talk to you, but I want to talk to my mom.
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And so, as time went on, as I continued to go into the church and praying and I do believe my mother prayed for me too as well that I had a spiritual lightning.
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I felt like St Paul conversion, like wow, there is Jesus, there's the resurrection.
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And then I was like, yeah, I got it, Something that I should have gotten at Easter time.
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Here I got at my mom's death and I'm flying high in this conversion, one would say.
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So what did I do?
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I go join the nunnery.
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I became a Catholic nun.
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So I was a Catholic nun for 12 years in the South Bronx.
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Oh, wow.
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How does your faith shape your healing journey through personal traumas?
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Well, like I said, my faith.
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At first I didn't really have a faith and then, as with the situation with my mom's death and with the searching and becoming a sister, of course I had faith.
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You know, at that moment I was faithful.
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You know I had faith, knowing that, okay, this is my life.
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Once again, when I enter, I go this is my life, I'm going to spend and dedicate my whole life to God and the church and to this community.
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But yet, 12 years later, I got kicked out.
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So it was like, okay, you know, there goes that dream or goal or whatever.
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Now I'm in my 40s and I endured a lot of hardship during the convent days, my religious life.
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I mean, like I said the last words, they said to me that you don't belong here anymore.
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And so why was that?
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Well, you know, in hindsight I look back.
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First of all, I don't think my faith was matured because I endured a lot and if I was the person I am today, back then I wouldn't have put up with anything.
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And the way I looked at it is that the sisters we just clashed, we just like, they had one spirit, I had another spirit.
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They were trying to confine me into their spirit which was like strapped, and meanwhile, by nature, I'm a free spirit, loving person, and they were trying to change me and I didn't realize it and I was going against the grain.
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And I stayed because I was in final vows.
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I stayed because I was in a marriage.
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I stayed because in my sixth, seventh year of religious life, I kept questioning myself do I really belong here?
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Because I'm not happy.
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This is going on, this is going on, but yet I stayed.
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I persevered because I married God.
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You know, god called me to this vocation and then, going through, I was sent away.
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I went for therapy.
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The sisters just didn't know what to do with me and then, at the end, they had the strength enough to say, hey, this is not for you, this life is not for you.
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And I'm like, I mean, for 12 years, you know, I put my blood, sweat and tears.
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I go what's going on here?
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So I did, I left.
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I mean, in hindsight it was the worst day, but then it became my best day because I wasn't meant to be there.
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I mean, god fulfilled one vocation, giving my life to him, and I had great blessings there and great trauma, but yet at the same time, you know, god kept, you know, saying okay, I have another plan for you, another door to open, another door.
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And at that time, when you asked about my faith, I just kept moving along.
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Okay, god, okay, god, you know, okay, you're God, I married you.
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I don't understand what's going on.
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I don't understand why religious people hurt me.
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I don't understand all this, but I'm just going to keep moving forward.
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So from there, after the convent, I went to go live with men and women with disabilities, and they were autism and Down syndrome, and so they were adults, and so I was their house mother syndrome, and so they were adults, and so I was their house mother.
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I stayed with them and I experienced a lot of love from them.
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It was like a transition time.
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I couldn't come back into the world.
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I mean, I was like what's the world?
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I mean I lived an austere life.
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I slept on the floor, I didn't have couches, a lot of things, I didn't have material things.
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So I, when I lived with the men and women with disabilities, I was loved.
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It was a transition.
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I was learning to come back to life, to live in the life in the world, and I did that for two years and then, as my faith was still there.
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You know, I still had this relationship with God.
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You know I'm still questioning what's going going on, what do you want in my life?
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But I kept moving forward.
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I was very broken when I left the convent, so I needed a lot of healing.
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There was a lot of anger, unforgiveness within moving forward, moving forward.
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And then I decided to do what Gina wanted to do, because I felt like I was doing what everybody else wanted to do in my life, that I came to the Jersey Shore because I love the beach.
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The beach is where heaven and earth meets Came here, found I didn't.
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I learned how to rent an apartment I'm like now in my 40s and then I had to get a job.
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Right, gina had to get a job and what does she know how to do?
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She knows how to bartend.
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So I went back to bartending and at this point I mean, I wasn't really angry with God.
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I was still with God.
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I was still practicing my faith at the time, going to church, bartending, and I said, okay, god, what's my next path?
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What do you want of me?
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And then, bartending, I met a guy because at this point I realized that I'm not going to be a religious sister anymore, that I will meet a guy.
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So I met this guy named Danny, great guy.
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I said, ok, god, this is it right.
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Another plan in my life, another goal that him and I, you know, be together, live in Timbuktu, whatever, have a house.
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Always wanted a house.
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Maybe not kids, because I'm in my 40s now I won't have those five kids that I wanted years ago, but I'll have a man in my life to be with.
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Well, it turns out that he was an alcoholic and I didn't realize that, and he was drinking at the time and, to make a real long story short, he was fighting his own demons and he did.
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He found sobriety, which is, you know, he was a great man, simply sick and he was one day at a time finding sobriety.
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He found it out West.
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And then we had another plan I'm going to move out West with him and we're going to, you know, support his sobriety.
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I was going to Al-Anon, which is a 12-step probe, but yet, as he was traveling, he has a story himself that he ultimately got into a tragic car accident and he burned up.
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His mother was with him, driving because they were going to end up at West, but I wasn't in the car at the time because I was working.
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The mother died, he burned up and we ended up in Indianapolis, indiana.
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So I'm like, okay, and he survived the fire.
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It was a car accident, he was on fire and everything is like, okay, god, you survived, he's not going to drink, everything will be fine.
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Well, what does an alcoholic do when they're in pain?
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You know, in trauma, they drink.
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So he picked up, he started drinking again.
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Then, ultimately, I ended up finding him dead a few months later, and so that was my darkest point, my ending point.
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Like at this point I kept okay, god, I believe, okay God, everything's going.
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And then when I found Danny dead a month before wedding day, I was like what's my purpose?
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Is my purpose to suffer?
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It's like I felt like Gina, like, as you heard, I had all these dreams, these goals, and nothing was fulfilled.
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And then, at this point, when Danny died, I was like I give up, I give up, I'm done, I'm done.
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I have to be honest, not that I didn't believe in God, I just didn't like him.
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I did not like him.
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I was like I hated him because of what he did.
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I was like I can't believe, I blamed him with my whole life.
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I'm like here I'm being a good person, everyone loves me, and here, you know, the sisters reject me, and then I find a man and then you take him away, and so I you know this all happened in Indiana when he died and I was with him, and so I came back to Jersey.
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It was, I was just simply existing.
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I was just like in such a dark place, saying, okay, give it to Gina, she'll suffer.
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It was like no hope.
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I didn't have any hope.
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I didn't have any love, I didn't have any faith and I just to me, that's the existence of hell when you're in that kind of state of mind and being.
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But then yet God did for me what I couldn't do for myself, that he carried me.
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And once again I was searching, searching for the meaning why Danny died, being an alcoholic and other people are sober.
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So that's what brought me into the rooms of AA, just listening, and then, a long story short, I come to realize, wow, I'm an alcoholic.
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So it was like and that's where God, you know, that's where God did for me what I couldn't do for myself, and that's where I developed a real deep spiritual relationship not a religion part or spiritual with God.
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And then in that it's like, wow, I've, you know, god willing, in April I'll have 10 years of sobriety.
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So, yeah, so at the same time, you know God I mean in the rooms we call it higher power and I had to relearn about God.
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I had to relearn about higher power because I was, because I know who God was and I know who God is because I married him.
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But then I also know what happened to me and I was like this can't be God, why is he doing this to me and so I just had to relearn and the Rooms of AA brought me a new relationship with God, a new life where I am free.
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So today I'm a sober, faithful woman of God.
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That my faith has grown.
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And now, just recently, in the last few years, I started adding the scriptures, I started adding the church and everything like that to to help me grow in who I am today a child of God, a sober woman, a faith of God, and now I just love God because of what he's done in my life.
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And that's where I share this and I wrote my book, my memoir, last summer to spread the word that it's called Shake the Dust Off your Feet and Walk.
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It's a scripture verse which is exactly what happened in my whole life Kept shaking the dust and kept walking.
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And today I still do.
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Today I still do.
00:19:34.944 --> 00:19:44.574
So that question of my faith, you know, today is a lot stronger and now I know I could handle life on life's terms, whatever comes my way.
00:19:44.574 --> 00:19:55.193
You know, with God and for him and with the tools of the program and just, and also seeing where I was and where I am today, I'm a much better place.
00:19:55.193 --> 00:19:56.218
I'm in the light today.
00:19:56.218 --> 00:19:57.534
So what?
00:19:57.795 --> 00:19:59.078
what do you think kept you?
00:19:59.078 --> 00:20:11.363
I mean, obviously you said it multiple times that you knew that God was there and that he, you know, helped you to go through everything, that God was there and that he helped you go through everything.
00:20:11.363 --> 00:20:18.060
But yet there were times in your life when you said where is God?
00:20:18.060 --> 00:20:19.769
I don't trust God and whatnot.
00:20:19.769 --> 00:20:28.490
What made you not walk away from that relationship or from that meaning that with God?
00:20:28.490 --> 00:20:34.375
What kept you from not walking away and saying you know, forget it, I quit, you know.
00:20:36.612 --> 00:20:42.576
Oh, that's a great question because there's not a perfect answer, I don't know why.
00:20:42.576 --> 00:20:51.865
Look back now, because that's what moves me today is truly His grace and His mercy that kept me going.
00:20:51.865 --> 00:20:59.683
His love kept me going, without me realizing it, and I believe it's probably many people's prayers.
00:20:59.683 --> 00:21:03.818
I believe I love that scripture out of the depths of my heart.
00:21:03.818 --> 00:21:06.673
I cry out to you, Lord and boy, that was my prayer throughout that time.
00:21:06.673 --> 00:21:07.438
Out of the depths, I cry out to you.
00:21:07.438 --> 00:21:08.181
I cry out to you, Lord and boy.
00:21:08.181 --> 00:21:09.065
That was my prayer throughout that time.
00:21:09.065 --> 00:21:10.691
Out of the depths, I cry out to you.
00:21:10.691 --> 00:21:23.182
I cry out to you, even though I didn't want to give up or, to be honest with you, it wasn't that I felt like I gave up in a way like what's the next trauma going to happen to me?
00:21:23.182 --> 00:21:25.592
Bring it on, bring it on, you know.
00:21:25.672 --> 00:21:32.221
I mean, I really wanted to die, but he was still there with you, even when you said I give up.
00:21:32.221 --> 00:21:35.305
You know he was still with you during those times.
00:21:37.750 --> 00:21:43.430
Yes, exactly, I did not know it, of course, because it was so filled with darkness.
00:21:43.430 --> 00:21:59.691
I always this is how I kind of describe my life is that throughout my life, as I said, I was searching, I was insecure and, as situations happen, like my insides, this wall kept getting built up, this wall, this wall.
00:21:59.691 --> 00:22:06.101
And then, by the time Danny died, my wall was so thick and so dark.
00:22:06.101 --> 00:22:10.268
With inside me, it was like so concrete and cold and wet.
00:22:10.268 --> 00:22:13.053
I was like okay, and that's you know.
00:22:13.053 --> 00:22:15.798
I didn't know how I was going to get out of it.
00:22:15.798 --> 00:22:19.914
I really did not know, or where I was sort of like confined.
00:22:19.914 --> 00:22:24.853
I was like okay, like I said, I was like bring it on, my purpose is to suffer.
00:22:24.853 --> 00:22:28.201
I would never kill myself, but I did pray to die.
00:22:28.201 --> 00:22:32.337
I prayed, like you know, god, please don't let me wake up tomorrow morning.
00:22:32.337 --> 00:22:33.240
And here I am.
00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:34.201
I woke up tomorrow morning.
00:22:34.201 --> 00:22:34.750
What do I do?
00:22:34.750 --> 00:22:36.253
Okay, push myself.
00:22:36.314 --> 00:22:41.569
I did get a job, but I didn't smile for about a year or two after Danny's death.
00:22:41.569 --> 00:22:42.671
I didn't want to smile.
00:22:42.671 --> 00:22:43.510
I didn't want, I didn't.
00:22:43.510 --> 00:22:48.374
I see everyone else having a good life and I'm like that's not going to happen to me.
00:22:49.054 --> 00:22:52.195
And, as I said, you know, god did for me what I couldn't do for myself.
00:22:52.195 --> 00:23:07.222
When he brought me into the rooms of AA and when I realized that that was kind of like my problem, like I was running away from because I should have used I could have used these rooms 30 years ago with my drinking, but I didn't because I was sort of like running.
00:23:07.222 --> 00:23:07.884
I was.
00:23:07.884 --> 00:23:09.904
You know, I was an escaped artist.
00:23:09.904 --> 00:23:11.286
I love to escape life.
00:23:11.885 --> 00:23:24.932
I built up a false identity Smile over here but meanwhile my insides would be so painful that what am I going to do to ease that pain?
00:23:24.932 --> 00:23:40.423
So I do like today I can say it was truly God that did for me what I couldn't do for myself and I just thank him and I do believe when I do die on his terms, on his way, I'll see it all.
00:23:40.423 --> 00:23:47.500
Aha, that's why you know, that's why, whatever, maybe I wouldn't see it.
00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:57.053
I mean that's like okay, I don't want to see because I'm with you, god, that's it now I mentioned in the introduction, you know that you're now an end of life.
00:23:57.433 --> 00:24:05.433
Doula, can you explain to me and my audience what exactly that is and how did you go into that?
00:24:05.433 --> 00:24:08.901
You know that life or that?
00:24:10.343 --> 00:24:12.587
Yeah, end of life doula is a.
00:24:12.587 --> 00:24:17.019
It's a holistic way of being with someone who is dying.
00:24:17.019 --> 00:24:20.208
It's non-medical, so it's not like a nurse.
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