Some lives are written in a single number. Mine was written in eight - and sixteen.
I was the eighth child, born on August eighth, weighing eight pounds eight ounces. I started drinking at sixteen. I became a cake decorator at sixteen. I have been sober for sixteen years. Eight doubled into sixteen. My beginning became my transformation.
Every Head Is a Different World is the memoir of a survivor. It begins on a cold basement floor at age seven and travels through grief, addiction, identity, and the long road back to life. It is the story of a child who wanted to wear a suit to her first communion. A teenager who stood at the edge of a lake and thought about not coming back. A woman who decorated thousands of birthday cakes while hating her own birthday. A person who got sober not for anyone else - but because she didn't want to die.
Written under the pen name Perseverance, this book is for anyone who has ever felt invisible. Anyone who has stood at their own edge. Anyone who needs proof that there is another side to the darkness.
There is. I am living proof.