Fourteen-year-old, neurodivergent Haylee thought her mother might as well be driving their Suburban to another world. Instead, Haylee stared and wept goodbye to her beloved Chicago and dreaded moving to Salem, Massachusetts.
Divorce is tough enough, but leaving her father in Chicago issued waves of guilt, since Haylee was the only member of the family who knew the dark secret. Meeting new peers made her nauseated. How can she possibly handle her parents' divorce if her entire world has to change, too?
Laurie S. Pittman knows divorce in a three-dimensional way.
Forget the 30 years of experience, prior to her retirement where she worked as a licensed psychologist helping families navigate the throes of divorce. Instead, her empathy parents and children runs deep. At the age of five, she and her older sister witnessed their parents struggle through a perpetuating, toxic dogfight that lasted for decades. Ever recalling how bitter her parents' divorce was, Laurie longed to break the fourth generation of marriage failure. Adding salt to old wounds, Laurie learned in her late forties, the father of her three beautiful daughters wished to divorce her after twenty-three years of marriage. The request shattered her hopes of breaking the fourth generation of separated/divorced parenting. Instead,Laurie would now be a parent navigating the grief process, financial fears and confused/hurt children. Ultimately, Laurie learned an important truth that divorce ends a marriage, but, the family unit can remain intact if adults can put the focus on the children, so that the children are not used as pawns for manipulating or even venting the unfinished business of muddied feelings.
Laurie's prior writing experience is her dissertation, "Attachment Issues, Self-Esteem, and Sense of Symbolic Immortality: Are Their Differences between Couples Not in Treatment vs. Couples in Marriage Therapy?" UMI Dissertation Services from ProQuest Company; September 15, 2007: Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Laurie was a guest speaker at the International Symposium in Caja Marca, Peru, and she won the local pageant, Miss Cumberland Valley, of the Miss America Pageant in 1980 and won Miss Congeniality in the Miss Pennsylvania Pageant. She also won the Gould Award for Acting in 1979 as well as the Winfield-Davidson Walkley Prize for Forensic Declamation in 1977 while attending Dickinson College for her undergraduate degree. She also was interviewed for a radio program about drug and alcohol issues for loved ones who love a problem drinker in 1994.
Laurie holds a Bachelor's Degree (1980) in Political Science and Dramatic Literature from Dickinson College; a Master's Degree (1993) in Clinical Psychology from Millersville University; and a Ph.D. of Philosophy with a concentration in Clinical Psychology (2008) from Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, Ohio. Laurie resides in East Berlin, Pennsylvania where she enjoys the bucolic scenery as well as woodsy animals, geese and ducks.
Chapter 1. Hope Springs Eternal… Disappointment Page 1
Chapter 2. The Sit Down Page 9
Chapter 3. The Road Trip Page 15
Chapter 4. We’ re Not in Kansas Anymore Page 19
Chapter 5. You Can’ t Catch Me, I’ m the Gingerbread Man! Page 23
Chapter 6. A Party Wherever She Goes Page 31
Chapter 7. The Coveted Ruby Slippers Become Permission Slips Page 35
Chapter 8. Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater Page 45
Chapter 9. The House that Jack Built Page 55
Chapter 10. Mirror, Mirror , on the Wall Page 59
Chapter 11. The Show Must Go On Page 65
Chapter 12. Bearing Good Tidings of Great Joy Page 12
Chapter 13. Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My! Page 75
Chapter 14. The Wizard Revealed Page 81
Chapter 15. The Better to Eat You with, My Dear! Page 87
Chapter 16. The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg? Page 97
Chapter 17. A Gown from the Fairy Godmother? Page 103
Chapter 18. A Fractured Cinderella Family Page 111
Chapter 19. Cinderella Must Return Before Midnight Page 117
Chapter 20. The Wolf Comes to Blow Your House Down Page 121
Chapter 21. Through the Looking Glass Page 127
Chapter 22. I’ ll Huff and Puff and Blow Your House Down Page 131
Chapter 23. Toil and Boil! Boil and Toil! Page 137
Chapter 24. Three Blind Mice! See How They Run! Page 141
Chapter 25. Cinderella Lost Her Glass Slipper Page 145
Chapter 26. Hanzel Cons Gretel into the Witch’ s Candied House Page 149
Chapter 27. Surrender, Dorothy! Page 155
Chapter 28. Who’ s Been Sleeping in My Bed? Page 163
Chapter 29. Snow White Eats the Poisoned Apple Page 167
Chapter 30. Gingerbread Man Vanishes! Page 173
Chapter 31. Dorothy Asks the Wizard of Oz Page 177
Chapter 32. You Can Have Your Ruby Slippers Page 185
Chapter 33. Gretel Has a Plan Page 186
Chapter 34. The Balloon Whisks Away Dorothy Page 197
Chapter 35. Gretel Enters the Witch’ s Oven Page 201
Chapter 36. The Witch’ s Oven Sure Is Dark Page 205
Chapter 37. Alice Tumbles Down the Rabbit Hole Page 209
Chapter 38. There’ s No Place Like Home! Page 211
Chapter 39. I Think I Can! I Think I Can! Page 215
Chapter 40. Flying Monkeys! Page 219
Chapter 41. Glinda, the Good Witch, Offers Hope Page 221
Chapter 42. Jonah Exits the Whale Page 223
Chapter 43. There’ s No Place Like… a Hospital? Page 229
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