This week’s Writer Wednesday is all about Lori Schafer’s memoir, “On Hearing of My Mother’s Death Six Years After It Happened: A Daughter’s Memoir of Mental Illness.”

I couldn’t put it down. I’m usually early to bed around here, and up before dawn, but this one had me seeing midnight. I like to think of that as a real “grown up” hour. I’m not sure there are enough adjectives for me to truly describe this memoir: poignant, touching, heartbreaking, and triumphant.

The author takes us through her journey as the daughter of a mentally ill mother. Although no definitive psychiatric diagnosis was ever given – to either the reader, or the author – the rollercoaster ride of fear and struggle and attempting to be a normal teenager was depicted so clearly, I felt as though I was with the author in the story. The narrative had me invested in the…