Lori L. Schafer

On Hearing of My Mother's Death Six Years After It Happened: a Daughter's Memoir of Mental Illness Lori L. Schafer 1st edition

It was the spring of 1989. I was sixteen years old, a junior in high school and an honors student. I had what every teenager wants: a stable family, a nice home in the suburbs, a great group of friends, big plans for my future, and no reason to believe that any of that would ever change. Then came my mother's psychosis. I experienced first-hand the terror of watching someone I loved transform into a monster, the terror of discovering that I was to be her primary victim. For years I?ve lived with the sadness of knowing that she, too, was a helpless victim ? a victim of a terrible disease that consumed and destroyed the strong and caring woman I had once called Mom. My mother's illness took everything. My family, my home, my friends, my future. A year and a half later I would be living alone on the street on the other side of the country, wondering whether I could even survive on my own. But I did. That was how my mother - my real mother - raised me. To survive. She, too, was a survivor. It wasn't until last year that I learned that she had died - in 2007. No one will ever know her side of the story now. But perhaps, at last, it?s time for me to tell mine. On Hearing of My Mother's Death Six Years After It Happened will be available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook on November 7th, 2014. You can read my free self-contained excerpts "Detention!" and "Poisoned" right now on Amazon.com. FIVE STAR REVIEW on Goodreads: "I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review, and when I initially opened it up to quickly peruse a few pages, before I knew it I had reached the end of the first chapter as I sat back with a "Wow!" Lori Schafer delivers a poignant tale in this memoir of life endured with a woman deep in the grip of mental illness. A tight, eloquent writing style paints each scene with tints of disquietude which enable the reader easy access into the trauma of the moments revealed. A seemingly erratic mix of memories subtly uncovers the sense of paralyzing helplessness inflicted by the parent/child relationship. Schafer managed to fully capture her past without turning it into a "pity party" or a spiteful tirade. This story touches the heart with its haunting, straight-forward intimacy. While easily read in a couple of hours, its echo will linger much longer in the mind. Excellent read!"