{"product_id":"9781942170037","title":"On Hearing of My Mother's Death Six Years After It Happened: A Daughter's Memoir of Mental Illness","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen came my mother's psychosis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut I did. That was how my mother - my real mother - raised me. To survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShe, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lori Schafer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47064835981552,"sku":"9781942170037","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781942170037_p0.jpg?v=1763797970","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781942170037","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}