Love's All That Makes Sense: A Mother Daughter Memoir By Sakeenah and Anika Francis
"I cannot recommend this
wonderful book highly enough for each and every reader who cares
about a world where people love and care for one another." Bookpleasures
"This book will provide validation and inspiration for families who face
similar struggles, as well as provide mental health care providers with
perspectives that can inform care." Dr Sarah Y Vinson, Black Mental Health
"a wonderful book for those looking for deeper insights into how people
live with and negotiate schizophrenia as patients and as family members" 5 Stars Amazon.com
Sakeenah
Francis describes her life as a Cinderella story in reverse. She grew
up in a well-respected, middle-class African American family. She
went to college, was homecoming queen, married, began a career and
had children. Then, schizophrenia struck and she lost everything. She
went from homecoming queen to being homeless and institutionalized.
Sakeenah Francis tells her daughter about her darkest moments of
living with schizophrenia in a series of letters that chronicle the
first time she heard voices in her head, her hospitalizations, her
struggle to parent, and her arduous path to long-term recovery.
Both
shaken and moved by her mother’s revealing letters, Anika faces the
haunting effects her mother’s mental illness had on her. After
years of keeping the secret about her mother’s illness, Anika
breaks her silence voicing
what it was like to grow up with a mother with a severe mental
illness.She
describes the emotional roller coaster created by her mother’s bouts
of recovery and how this impacted her well into adulthood.
Though
Sakeenah lost many bouts in her early struggles with schizophrenia,
she kept striving. Through it all, there was love which at times was
the only thing that made sense to Sakeenah and Anika. Love gave them
the strength and resilience to heal and piece together that which
schizophrenia had torn apart in their lives. This sobering story
carries a message of hope that will be inspiring to people affected
by a severe mental illness and the web of people connected to them.
About The Authors
Sakeenah Francis is passionate about raising awareness about mental illness. She is a mental health advocate and speaker who has given over
fifty speeches about her experiences living with schizophrenia for over thirty years and being in
long-term recovery for the past fifteen years. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio
Anika Francis was exposed early on to schizophrenia’s ravaging effects as she
tried to cope and support her mother thus she understands the issues
facing children of mentally ill parents. Yoga played such an important role in her healing that she became a yoga
therapist and now teaches people how to use yoga for mental wellness and
healing. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
