About Me

I am - perhaps, like you - a mother who, when making a list of things I would have to deal with in raising my kids, never once thought that mental illness in one of them would be on the list.

Yet, it showed up anyway.

And when it arrived, slowly and without notice until the moment of the first life-shattering psychotic episode, I was completely taken off guard. I was overwhelmed, terrified, frustrated, and didn’t know where to turn. Even with my background as a Registered Nurse, I was crushed by my inability to know what to do.

I have lived through the sleepless nights, the police visits, the crisis evaluations in the Emergency Department. I’ve seen my child in handcuffs, not because he did anything criminal, but because he has the misfortune of having an illness that, when it is raging, makes others - even the police - afraid of him. I’ve been on the other side of the locked Behavioral Health unit door, and shed a million tears as I watched him suffer. I put over 100,000 miles on my car while traveling to visit him at the State Hospital during his 3-1/2 years of hospitalization there.

You might say I get it.

I imagine that you’re here because you love someone who has a mental illness. My goal is to help you find your way through the dark times. I want you to understand better what’s going on when someone has a mental illness. I want to help you find the courage to keep going. And I want to celebrate with you when a step is taken toward recovery and healing.

It has been said that our greatest test is whether or not we can reach out and bless someone else’s life while going through our own storms.

I hope I pass the test.

I’m glad we’ve connected, even in the smallest way, and I hope you’ll visit here often.