Waves of Yesterday

"The year was 1961 and I was a fair-haired girl in a golden world. I lived in a stately home in an upscale neighborhood and was a member of a well-respected family. My parents appeared to be happily married, and my father was a successful businessman. They were the good times, Asbury Park's glory days. My mother was well then. It was only a year before the scream in the night. My family was oblivious to the demon lurking in the dark recesses of our home. The beast sat outside a window, crouching like a wide-eyed gargoyle, baring his horrid teeth, waiting to slink through a crevice in the wall, and destroy our unsuspecting family. That double demon didn't destroy my family all at once, that would have been too easy. He infiltrated our sanctuary and destroyed us slowly, like water dropping, drop by drop, on the face of a stone. He lived in Pandemonium, that noisy hall of demons. I have met that demon face to face; he is Legion. His name is mental illness." The author writes of growing up in the late 1950's at the bustling shore town of Asbury Park, New Jersey. Delightfully, she tells of working at her father's homemade candy shop and describes the cultural clash of her Greek father and Dutch mother while pointing out the negative stereotypes of women during that time. With a touching and heartfelt narrative, she examines her mother Marjorie's struggle with mental illness and institutionalization in the early 1960's. She writes of marrying her high school sweetheart. The author questions her mental health while struggling with personal tragedy as a mother and wife: her son's injury in a car accident and her husband's debilitating disease. All her personal tragedy leads her to a spiritual awakening.