My Addicted Family: A Mother's Story of Shame, Pain, Loss, and Healing

While living her perfect life, Anne Kennedy came face-to-face with a grim reality: all four of her gifted, glorious children were drug- and alcohol-dependent. In the 1960s and 1970s, addiction's dark ages, she kept the skeletons in the closet. Now Kennedy breaks her silence about the "family illness," which flourished in a false suburban utopia and a justice system that criminalized addicts. She writes of the ultimate loss, her oldest daughter, and the healing roads that restored life for everyone else. Kennedy's story, written in short memoiric bursts, delivers two messages: someone precious is inside every addict and no family, anywhere, is perfect.