There was so much loveliness surrounding Jocelyn Patten as she grew up in Canada. Having moved to the country from her birthplace of Massachusetts at the age of two, Patten was surrounded by relatives and family friends who supported and loved her. And, yet, despite all this, she fell through the cracks into a world of both numbness and agitation. Family support did not protect her from a life of mental illness. It may have softened it a bit, her landing, but it didn’t prevent any of it, or dictate its course. There are many factors in the development of mental illness, family support being just one of them.
Schooling at first seemed to be okay, but Patten was teased and taunted by the kids around her. And, we realize through the chapters o
