Joyce Lovely Reveals her Tragic, Harrowing Fight Against her Children's Drug Addictions
WORCESTER, Mass., Aug. 12, 2009 — It's every mother's worst nightmare: to wake up one day and realize that she is helpless to stop the downward spiral of her marriage, her family and her life. In her heartbreaking memoir of incredible depth and honesty, "In the Blink of an Eye" (published by AuthorHouse), Joyce Lovely describes a true story of a family in the death-grip of addiction.
Lovely was born into a large family of eight other siblings with fiery Italian blood from her mother's side. During her childhood, Lovely was taught the value of hard work and an honest living and she learned quickly how to capitalize on her skills, landing a job with a local attorney and judge. But Lovely's luck turned when she met and fell in love with Dana Lovely. After three months of dating, they were married and Lovely was with child. But the marriage was strained by arguments about money and Dana's drinking habit.
After moving from place to place, avoiding landlords, being evicted for non-payment and enduring fearsome verbal confrontations with one another, Lovely and Dana separated. Dana left for places unknown in order to avoid any legal payment to support his family. Nevertheless, as Lovely did the best she could to raise her children on her own, she was devastated to find that her son had become entangled with drugs at an early age. Over the summer months, Dana Jr. would be in and out of jail for a variety of offenses.
Lovely utilized the principles of tough love, only to discover that sometimes this tactic does more harm than good. Her courageous efforts to rehabilitate her son were second to none. She drove him from one methadone clinic to another along the coast of New England, trying to find him the help he needed. Much to her dismay, Dana Jr. still wound up in jail from time to time and became HIV positive. Finally, at age 27, he entered a rehabilitation center in Maine to escape jail and the threat of dying from AIDS, not knowing that within five days he would die from an overdose of prescription drugs given by the facility staff.
Lovely's subsequent plunge into the abyss of depression and desolation left her incapacitated physically, emotionally and mentally. Her troubles far from over, Lovely had the tragic experience of watching her daughter become suicidal and depressed in the wake of the loss of her brother and a series of ten operations in six years to treat the endometriosis which caused her excruciating, constant pain. Tragically, after undergoing trigger-point therapy and a battle with prescription drug addiction, Lovely's daughter passed away. In its final chapters, "In the Blink of an Eye" follows Lovely as she learns to cope with her grief and turns to God to give her faith in order to go on living.
Heartbreaking and honest, "In the Blink of an Eye" sheds light on a mother's struggle against the drug and alcohol addictions that consumed her family. Follow her on her long and harrowing journey as she finds peace with God after a life fraught with pain and grief.
"In the Blink of an Eye" is Joyce Lovely's first book.
About the Author
Joyce Lovely was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. She attended Pentecostal Bible Institute in Tupelo, Mississippi and graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree. After graduation, she moved to Ellsworth, Maine where she was a Sunday school teacher. After marrying her husband, she returned to Massachusetts and settled in Worcester where she has resided for the last forty-three years.
AuthorHouse is the premier book publisher for emerging, self-published authors. For more information, please visit http://www.authorhouse.com.
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