This memoir by Beverly J. Armento spans the country—New York, Florida, and eventually on to Georgia. It’s colorful and heart-wrenching. Her life growing up with a mentally unstable and legally blind mother is quite sad. As a child, after her father abandons them, Beverly moves into a caretaker role for her siblings and “seeing eye girl” for her abusive mother.

Purpose, resilience, and encouragement are themes I took away from this read.

Beverly and her sister knew their story needed to be told. Why? Within the first chapter, you understand it’s one like no other. Though it takes a moment to follow the flow, you soon discover this is the recollection of a courageous woman who survived horror by clinging to hope. How Beverly navigated dysfunction, being uprooted from home, living with a cold and absent father figure, and a violently unstable mother, not to mention the physical and emotional pain, is frankly challenging to comprehend. Though many readers have experienced similar hardships, walking alongside the author as she traverses and transcends is heartening.

Unsurprisingly, Beverly found solace and success in academia, where teachers and mentors laid the foundation for her future.

Her career as a teacher of middle school students and young educators is a testament that there is always a candle yearning to burn brightly in the dark. She did, but not without experiencing one lesson after another and somehow rising. This is an amazing and uplifting story of survival.

Book and Image Courtesy of Books Forward and She Writes Press