Tomorrow Was Yesterday

Book excerpt: In these snapshots from on-going sagas, you'll read about grim realities - terrible group homes, suicides, adult children killed by police, incarcerations, solitary confinement, lack of beds, family chaos, substance abuse, ineffective medications, heart-breaking HIPAA restrictions, hallucinations, homelessness, sorrow, hurt, and anger. Simultaneously, you'll read about profound love, caregiving, gratitude, forgiveness, hope, strength, persistence, resilience, generosity, leadership, courage, pursuing dreams, understanding, and heroism. Please read our stories. Set aside any conscious biases about serious mental illnesses (SMI) and the people and families who struggle with them. Imagine us as relatives or friends - people you care deeply about. We mothers, in Tomorrow Was Yesterday, are counting on you to help us use outrage and compassion to reach a tipping point for change. We're relying on your word of mouth support to get these stories out to the broader, unknowing public. It has no idea how abysmal things are. -Dede Ranahan "I am confident these stories will cause the world to wake up, take notice, and implement the change we so badly need." -Miriam Feldman, painter and author of He Came In with It: A Portrait of Motherhood and Madness "Reading these intimate accounts will change you. It changed me." -Steve Goldbloom, Emmy-nominated writer, producer, director, and creator of the Brief But Spectacular series for PBS NEWsHour. The show's mission is to invite viewers to walk in someone else's shoes. "If these stories can't convince policy makers, I don't know what will." -Mindy Greiling, Minnesota legislator for 20 years, and author of Fix What You Can: Schizophrenia and a Lawmaker's Fight for Her Son