For the past five years my partner, Gene, and I have lived quietly in New Mexico where we grow fruit on our orchard for sale at the local markets. When I’m not writing, I wear my teacher hat in the local schools. And I do volunteer work in twelve-step organizations. We still get away whenever we can to enjoy hiking and backpacking all over the United States.


Toward the end of my teaching career, I earned my Master of Arts in Teaching. That journey was critical for me because it was a Master’s in Reflective Practice. Now that I’m retired, I have time to reflect back on my fortunate life. But it’s an inward journey I’ve been on for the past few years. My bittersweet mother/daughter memoir about generational addiction in my family has been published in New Mexico. (A Mother’s Story: Angie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, by Maggie C. Romero, my pseudonym). 


Marilea’s story is an intimate portrait of addiction and how it has been passed down in her family from generation to generation. Marilea herself has struggled with addiction, and when her daughter’s drug addiction, at age twenty-one, became apparent to her, she jumped into a recovery program to cope with Angie’s illness. The subsequent fifteen years have proven to be a powerful and poignant redemption journey, as she has gradually come to claim  recovery for herself even as she has watched her beautiful daughter continue to struggle. Marilea’s is a story of hope and recovery that will resonate with many people, as epidemic as addiction is in our society.


A Mother’s Story: Angie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is an International Book Awards Winner, a Finalist in the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards, and a Finalist in the USA Best Book Awards.


She can be found at www.recoveryofthespirit.com

Marilea Rabasa

I grew up in the culture of New England in a

Massachusetts town.  

How I got from there to the desert Southwest is an interesting story. 
For a number of years I was an ESL teacher in northern Virginia. And before that, in a former life, I lived overseas in the Foreign Service. Just as I provided “springboards” for my students in writing class, my travels provide the backdrop for  my second book, a memoir full of humor and pathos, on how I’ve overcome my lifelong depression and found the key to being happy.​

Annie Highwater​​
Author Annie Highwater is a, Author, Recovery Writer, Podcast Host, Speaker, Family Advocate and a Recovery Enthusiast.   She is a life-long researcher of Behavioral Science with particular interests in family pathology and concepts of dysfunction, addiction, alcoholism and conflict.  In 2016, Annie published her first book, the memoir, Unhooked: A Mother's Story of Unhitching from the Roller Coaster of Her Son's Addiction. Her story is especially relevant in helping us all understand the personal challenges facing the affected parents and family members, and how family dynamics both help and hinder the recovery process. Annie’s second book “Unbroken, Navigating the Madness of Family Dysfunction, Alcoholism and Addiction” was published in 2018. She is a contributor to a book about the epidemic in Ohio, that The Ohio State University published in 2019.   Annie is a regular contributor to Allies in Recovery, has been trained in the CRAFT Method and works in her community as a Recovery Support Specialist.  
Annie resides in Columbus, Ohio and enjoys writing, spending time with family, friends and support groups, the great outdoors and visiting her son in Southern California as often as possible.support, information and hope to the stressed out, affected family, partners and friends (the “entourage”) of those in the grips of addiction, alcoholism and SUD.  
I believe no one should have to go through it alone.

 
January, 2020

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