Eleanor Futscher

Through the Darkness: Coping with the Legacy of Mental Illness Eleanor Futscher

Through the Darkness is the story of the authors childhood on a rural North Dakota farm, shadowed by her fathers suffering from mental illness. The book follows the author as she leaves the farm for school, and then marries and moves to urban California. There were happy and stressful years in California as the author and her husband raise a family of four children. Over time, they are faced with the growing realization that their eldest son is having more than normal difficulties. His diagnosis of schizophrenia shattered the family, and the book goes on to chronicle the ensuing years of grief and eventual coming to terms with the loss of the son to mental illness. The book is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. A must read for anyone with mental illness in the family.