By: Maggie C. Romero
ISBN: 978-1-940769-14-1
Mercury HeartLink, 2014
A Mother’s Story: Angie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is a searing and intimate portrait of substance use disorder and how it has been passed down in Maggie Romero’s (Marilea Rabasa’s) family from generation to generation. Marilea is herself a substance user, and when Angie’s substance use, at age twenty-two, became apparent to her, she jumped into a recovery program to cope with her daughter’s illness. The subsequent twenty years have proven to be a powerful and poignant redemption journey, as she has gradually come to claim recovery for herself even as she’s watched her beautiful daughter continue to struggle. This is a story of hope and recovery that will resonate with many people, as substance use disorder is epidemic in our society. Winner of the International Book Award, this is the first of Marilea’s trilogy of recovery memoirs.
About the Author
Marilea Rabasa is a retired English as a Second Language teacher and author of two award-winning memoirs. She and her partner lived in New Mexico for a decade before moving to an island in Puget Sound. Her third memoir, the last in her recovery trilogy, is a love story she’s writing with her partner about traveling around the United States, Canada, and Europe. It’s scheduled for publication in 2023. Writing down stories has proven to be a valuable rite of passage for many men and women, and Marilea hopes to teach life-writing to seniors.
