Kirjahaku

"A moving account of six former alcoholics and Betty Ford graduates--among them a teacher, a housewife and a gang member--with commentary from Ford herself."--Self "There was a lot of drinking and codependence in my extended family. Sitting in my jail cell, I thought about how many funerals I had attended over the years of family members whose lives had ended in violence or suicide. I never once heard of them getting help. There was never any mention of AA. The only way out of their terrible lives was just to die...It was one hell of a legacy."--Laurette Laurette's story is remarkable, but she's not alone. She is one of six women in Healing and Hope who experienced the pain and devastation of addiction--and managed to break free. Originally brought together by the Betty Ford Center's twentieth-anniversary reunion, these women share their poignant stories in this book. Their combined voices create a groundbreaking and ultimately triumphant memoir that lays bare the destructive power of addiction.

In 1986, when going through his late mother Betty Ford's papers in her basement, her son Michael Aquino discovered a mouldering suitcase filled with the disintegrating manuscripts of poems she had written between ages 11-17, which she had never bothered to even mention. Along with them was an Introduction written by her Stanford mentor Professor Lewis Terman, for an intended publication entitled Pegasus in Pinfeathers. Astounded by these poems, Michael carefully pieced the fragments together, and so Pegasus is finally flying: 256 poems totaling over 35,000 words in this 366-page collection. Far from what one would normally expect in juvenilia, Betty's verse explores not only the natural universe about her, but stunning metaphysical and magical visions of her own creation. This edition includes Professor Terman's original 1929 Introduction, and a 2014 Foreword by Michael.