AN ILLUSION OF NORMAL-
The true story of a child’s survival in a home tormented by mental illness.
She guards a secret – Mom is “sick in the head.”
In an era when speaking of mental illness was taboo, Linda learns from an early age not to talk about her mother’s bizarre behavior. Now her mother’s escape from a-would be killer threatens to expose the family secret. They are not a normal family.
Finally, after her mother’s extended stays in mental institutions, Linda accepts that her Mom will never be normal. That, she assumes, makes her abnormal as well. She wrestles against her father’s abuse and constant shaming of her and her faith and wonders if she will ever feel normal in an abnormal family. Did God make a mistake? Why is she in a home where she doesn’t feel loved or accepted? Is there a way for her to break away from the shame that holds her captive?
An Illusion of Normal is the riveting and award winning memoir of the life of a child whose mother suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. At times shocking and heartbreaking, her story exposes the darkness in a home tormented by a parent’s mental illness and the light that shows the way out. An inspirational story for anyone needing hope to overcome difficult circumstances.