For anyone who believes in second chances. In my memoir I have revealed raw details of the turbulence, trauma, depression, pain and suffering of early childhood. I made attempts at running away that led me to hospitalizations for depression, jail, for protective custody, and finally into a teenage marriage, pregnancy and three children by the time I was 20 years old. Life was not happily ever after. It was an alcoholic marriage of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. My own addictions with food, pills, and alcohol blossomed. There have been many escapes during the 30 years of marriage. At 56 the running took me to the other side of the world in peace corps Thailand for two years which I asked myself am I running to or running from? I have the same problems on the other side of the world, because everywhere I go there I am. The last part of my book consists of the correspondence to my children, friends, grandchildren, and their schools. In the twenty-four “Letters to America.” The letters to America had been filed away for 20 years and appear in their original unedited words.
Thank you.
Love,
Karen Downey
