Maybe reading a heartfelt and sensitive review will help get you over to Amazon to buy a copy of my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother’s Memoir of Living with Her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide.
Original Cover
“A beautiful yet heartbreaking story..a must read!
As parents, we do everything we can to help our children become strong, healthy, well adjusted and morally upright adults. Yet there are obstacles that we cannot foresee and cannot even begin to understand until we see all of our efforts unravel right before our eyes. This is what Madeline and her family experienced with Paul. He developed a severe mental disorder that caused him to become someone that his family could barely recognize. As hard as they tried to understand, encourage, and help Paul, his illness took over time and again. The ebbs and flows, the highs and lows, the abstract hope and then disillusionment became their norm. In the end, no amount of intervention helped Paul to overcome his disease and his family was left behind to try to pick up the pieces.
Madeline Sharples bares her soul as she writes of her struggle to protect her child from himself and from society’s inability to come to terms with mental illness. As I read the book, I sometimes had to put it down because I could relate to her struggle as a mother trying to help her child overcome obstacles that we want to believe are only fleeting and minor. And just as quickly, I picked it up again to read on and to learn more about how amazing Paul was and all that he tried to accomplish in spite of his dreaded illness.
I have so much respect and awe for Madeline as she takes us on a journey of hope, grief, acceptance, and love. This book should be standard reading for every medical student, mental health professional, and parent.
May Gd truly bless Madeline for giving us insight into how real the journey is for people dealing with mental illness and all its ramifications so that we may become stronger families and better friends and community members.”
Also here’s the sales information for the CD we produced to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of our son Paul’s death. It is meant to be a companion to the memoir. All profits from its sales will go to charities that support erasing the sigma of mental illness and preventing suicide. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) was the first recipient of these funds in late 2014.
Where you can buy a digital copy :
CDBaby
Apple iTunes
eMusic
Amazon MP3
Where you can buy a hard copy:
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