All the Missing Pieces

Anne sat on the side of the bed where her suicidal stepson lay. He had traveled to their new home perched high on a palisade overlooking the Pacific. All too familiar with mental illness, she offered him hope as she described her life, a life of abuse and addictions. Her words, descriptions of a life where she and her siblings were placed in an orphanage for eight months where abuse continued. Her words to her stepson were powerful; as she stated, living in survival mode was not how God wanted us to live. A month later, he hung himself. One more suicide to add to the others. All the Missing Pieces is the exploration of a journey of unspeakable events where a strong, happy, talented woman grew. A woman who abhors abuse, who speaks up against inhumane treatment. She provides the reader with actions that allowed her to survive, eventually abandon survival mode for real joy. She learned that even though her relationship with God was absent, she realized that he was always with her and her siblings.