Let’s Go Back

Let’s go back to when Joan and I were 12 and 9, halfway to ten. A boy from school — kind of a thug who was bigger than the rest of the boys in Joan’s class because he’d been held back — had a crush on her and followed her home from school. Although Joan could hold her own around girls, exhibiting a devil-may-care attitude that made them envious, boys — especially big boys with loud voices like this one — made Joan watchful and quiet.

I watched from the living room window as Joan avoided the boy around the spherical juniper bush until he grabbed her sleeve and pulled her close to kiss her. When she screamed, I dashed out the front door and rammed head first into the boy’s side.

He turned, enraged. “Who do you think you are, you little twit?” he asked derisively. Joan wiped away a tear.

“Leave my sister alone!” I screamed, face flushed, taking s step back as I raised my fists. Joan laughed.

“You’re both crazy like your mom,” he sneered before spitting into the juniper and sauntering away.

Although Joan put her hand over her mouth as we walked toward the front porch, I could see the smile beneath it.

Now let’s move forward.

Joyce Cooling’s Moving NAMI Tribute

Loved meeting Joyce Cooling

Saturday’s SF Bay Area NAMIWalk was a huge success, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide free services to families dealing with mental illness throughout the SF Bay Area. Kickoff Speaker Joyce Cooling, the fabulous jazz guitarist whose brother has struggled for years with mental illness, gave an incredibly moving tribute to her brother, her mother, and the folks at NAMI, who she said were a godsend to her mother during her struggle to help her son. Major kudos to Joyce for her tremendous support, to Laurie Williams, NAMIWalk Director, for putting on a fabulous event, and to all the NAMI volunteers who work hard every day to make life easier for families struggling with mental illness. The Approaching Neverland Team, comprised of many wonderful book club friends, was proud to have participated! More information about SF Bay Area NAMI can be found at http://namiwalksfbay.org/

Bay Area Discussion Group Rocks!

Over the 5 years that it took me to complete Approaching Neverland, I looked forward to many things: to finally feeling like I’d captured the essence of my family and gotten our story right; to the great feeling of finally being published; to focusing on all of the things that I had neglected while engrossed in writing. But what has truly blown me away is how incredible it feels to have someone really GET what you’ve written exactly how you hoped they would. My meeting this past Saturday with the Bay Area Discussion Group Book Club was full of so many moments of understanding and fabulous humor (not to mention delicious pot roast and potatoes!) that it hit me that sometimes the walls between family and friends dissolve and we’re all left sitting in the living room wondering why the walls were there in the first place and whose turn it is to fix dinner. Can you say grace?

Come see me on View from the Bay

Would love to have you join me on the set of View from the Bay for my appearance on May 7th! It’s free and should be a blast — you’ll have the chance to meet co-hosts Spencer Christian and Janelle Wang and see all that great behind the scenes stuff!
Here’s how to do it:
Tickets for the show are FREE but must be reserved in advance. Audience doors open at 2:15pm with a cut-off time of 2:30pm, the show is live from 3-4pm.
To reserve your seats please call the ticket request line at (415)-954-7733 or visit http://www.viewfromthebay.com and click on “be in our audience” and fill out a ticket request form. Or click on the link below to go to the online ticket request form. Simply fill out your information and press submit.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/feature?section=view_from_the_bay&id=6337461
Under “comments” please be sure to note “Peggy Kennedy.”

Approaching Neverland on Kindle

I’m very excited that Approaching Neverland is on Kindle

NNAMI’s Great Tips for Parents

Just found a great Australian site — National Network of Adult & Adolescent Children of Mentally Ill Parents — with super advice (see below). The site also features a great downloadable Family Management Crisis Plan.

http://www.nnaami.org

Tips for Parents with a mental illness for managing life with Children and Young people.

• Be honest with you kids.
• Let them know when you are feeling stressed.
• Talk to them about what you can and can’t do.
• Don’t wrap your kids up in cotton wool. (Hav to admit I’m a little in the dark about the cotton wool advice — pk).
• Let them do ‘kids things’ within reason, let them go to birthday parties and to the pool to the gym.
• Let them go to youth groups, sporting activities, church, religious activities.
• Don’t be over protective.
• Because when you are really unwell these positive experiences from these things can pay off.
• Let them talk to friends and develop friendships in these activities; you have to let them be part of their community.
• Keep well by taking your medication, have regular contact with your psychiatrist.
• Give your kids positive reinforcement.
• Tell them they have done a good job when they have done the washing up or the vacuuming or a task that you appreciate.
• Tell them that you love them, unconditionally, as often as you can.
• Does not matter what they do (your kids), good or bad, tell them that you love them.

Mental Health Parity in Health Bill

The Health Care bill signed into law today should help to improve the lives of individuals and families dealing with loved ones with mental illness. One important thing about the bill is that it requires mental health parity with that for physical illnesses in terms of annual and lifetime treatment benefits.  This would also require “carve-out” programs, or specialized managed care organizations that provide mental health services, to comply with parity requirements.  I’m hoping this makes a big difference in quality of life for the one in four families dealing with mental health issues.

I love book clubs!

I was honored to be a guest at a San Ramon group’s first book club meeting this morning. Meeting with this lively, lovely group of women reminded me of how lucky we women are that we feel so comfortable diving deep into our emotions to find the answers to what makes us tick and what makes us who we are as individuals. Within the course of 90 minutes, we shared our stories of mental illness and relationships and loss, and I think we all left feeling a little closer and a little less alone.
Thanks so much to all of you at today’s book club for coming and opening up your hearts 🙂

Braving the Storm!

Just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all the great folks who braved the torrential downpour this past Wednesday to make it to my book event at Towne Center Books in Pleasanton. The storm was so bad that several trees were uprooted at Pleasanton BART!

Judy Wheeler, owner of Towne Center Books, made us all feel cozy and welcome with homemade cranberry nut bread, muffins, coffee and tea. Our enthusiastic crowd had a fantastic discussion about families and mental illness. It was one of my favorite book events to date.

Thanks again to all who came!

Join Approaching Neverland NamiWalk team!

I’m very excited to have just formed the Approaching Neverland Team for the 2010 NamiWalk in San Francisco on May 22. Join us to help raise money for families dealing with mental illness by joining our team and creating your own page