Survival in a Shadow

To the outside world, our friends and family, our life looked similar to their own. It was only within our private walls that revealed the ugly truth we were living. There were many days of wondering what shoe would drop and how heavy it would land. For me, there were nights of laying motionless, afraid of closing my eyes for fear I might miss something or not wake up at all. The journey within this book uncovers the unraveling of a family dealing with a fathers/husbands progressive depression and deteriorating mental health. Stumbling through a system that protects only the mentally ill was our frustration. Learning how to be strong and courageous when a large part of you wants to just crumble and hide was how we survived. You may find some similarities to your own story. I hope our life experiences show you that you are not alone and that a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how far away, is shining for you.

Gretchen Hertler was born and raised in Middletown, Connecticut, where she is now a kindergarten teacher in the Middletown Public School System. She has taught kindergarten for the past seven years and prior to that spent eighteen years teaching Middle School Special Education. Gretchen holds a bachelors degree in Education from Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, and two masters degrees, one in Education from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and another in Holistic Thinking from the Graduate Institute in Connecticut. Gretchen also spent time teaching Character Counts! throughout Connecticut and runs her own personal charity donating clothes to newborn babies and families in need. With all these accomplishments in her background, Gretchen would still say that her biggest accomplishment would be her three daughters. Possessing a deep interest and investment of time in helping the lives of others, she decided to write Between the Darkness and the Light as an autobiographical experience of her personal life in marriage to a person with severe sociopathic tendencies for eighteen years. This book will indeed help anyone who has someone with a mental illness in their family and help them to move forward in a positive manner.