Author: Billy Dees

This episode contains discussion that some listeners may find triggering.

Author Barbara Legere

“Keven’s Choice: A Mother’s Journey Through Her Son’s Mental Illness, Addiction and Suicide”

Keven had spent half his life struggling with addiction while his single mom battled courts, health care companies, rehab facilities and mental health professionals to protect him. As their relationship strained and his drug use progressed, Legere was forced to accept and love Keven as he was in their limited time together—two years before his suicide.

In Keven’s Choice, Legere tells the story of trying to navigate the dark worlds of her son’s substance use and depression while also addressing her complicated guilt and regret over how she handled it. In the process, she shines a light on the hidden anguish of countless parents who are taking care of children that society tells them to abandon.

For parents who have borne witness to overdoses, arrests, addiction treatment and incarceration and even death, Keven’s Choice is a raw and intimate memoir of a mother’s grief that shows it’s possible and necessary to go on, even amidst the unimaginable.

You can find out more about the author’s story at her website www.barbaralegere.com.