Ardys Brevig Richards Knihy

A healthy infant is born in 1948 to a young mother in the bluff-country of Minnesota, an ethnically Norwegian-American farming community. What is anticipated as a joyful celebration devolves into unimaginable tragedy and the shocking emergency commitment of the mother to an insane asylum. As her mind spirals downward into a personal hell, little hope is offered by the doctors at Rochester State Hospital that she will ever return home to her husband, two little daughters and their devoted grandmother.Caroline's story explores the devastation of mental illness layered upon the trauma of unbearable torment and loss. Her experience begs one to consider the existence of evil in a world not far removed from the horrors of world wars. As the harsh reality of a future torn asunder comes into focus and the commonly accepted treatments in the asylums of the day are exposed, both family and community grapple with raw feelings. Anger at such unfairness must be directed somewhere. Is it a cruel twist of fate? Is it laid at the feet of an oblivious God to whom prayers go unanswered? Is it at oneself for not seeing what must have been visible if only one had been brave enough to see?Against the background of the beauty of the Minnesota bluff country, the author weaves the strands of pain, fear and shame, with the strands of love, strength and the will to prevail into a stunning tapestry of the human spirit.