IT'S A LITTLE surprising to hear former Fox 29 anchor Dawn Stensland describe herself as feeling "empowered" these days.

In the last 18 months, she lost her TV anchor job, suffered a miscarriage and watched as a sexually charged public scandal humiliated her TV anchor husband Larry Mendte and led to his firing, conviction and house arrest.

"We all have our cross to bear. No matter what a person is going through," she says, as her voice breaks and she wipes tears away. "For women, put on your best game face, put on your best girdle and you just gotta go."

What has provided the Chicago native with that strength to go on? Facebook. And Twitter.

She says she's received more than 3,000 messages through e-mail, Facebook, texts and Twitter from family, friends and viewers. Many of those who contacted her and people she sees on the street ask what they can do to get her back on the air.

"It's so empowering to feel that kind of love and support from people," the 45-year-old Stensland said recently, as she enjoyed a coconut-shrimp appetizer plate at the Chestnut Grill on Germantown Avenue. (It's her favorite indulgence). "A lot of the messages going back over the past year until now with me losing my job are probably from people who are in their own struggle."

They don't even know the half of what Stensland has endured.

In addition to her publicized woes, Stensland's 67-year-old mother Rosemary is suffering from a progressive motor-neuron disorder similar to Lou Gehrig's disease. She's been confined to a wheelchair for more than a year.

Her white German shepherd succumbed to cancer in January, on Mendte's birthday.

Meanwhile, Fox 29's announcement last month that it would not renew her contract came almost to the day of the anniversary of Stensland's Oct. 17, 2008, miscarriage.

And her husband, the former CBS 3 anchor, is also jobless after recently completing six months house arrest, the result of pleading guilty to a felony federal charge in connection with hacking former co-anchor Alycia Lane's e-mails.

"There's a tendency that we all feel alone," said Stensland, who says she turns to her Bible verses for strength and comfort. "[But] with that many thousands of people writing you, you don't feel alone."

One Facebook poster's comments reflected many on Stensland's Facebook pages: "I was so sorry to see your [sic] gone from Fox!," wrote one woman. "It saddens me your [sic] not there. You did a GREAT job and I loved watching you every night :)"

"I read through them all sometimes at night and cry," Stensland said. "It feels so emotional, it's like a big group hug."

And, lately, Dawn Stensland has needed a big Philadelphia hug.
 

The mother of two, who wants to be known from here forward as Dawn Stensland Mendte, calls herself and her children "the innocent victims" of the Mendte-Lane scandal of 2008 that continues in litigation to this day.

"And that is the truth," Stensland said, in a rare sassy moment.

But, she'll be the first to tell you: "I'm not angry at all. I don't want to get revenge, but I do pray that the full truth comes out."

As for Mendte, she stands by her man.