All the Fish Are Butterflies

Joan Marie's blissful world is shattered when her mother Marjorie descends into mental illness and is institutionalized against her will.

"The year was 1961, and I was a fair-haired girl in a golden world. I lived in a stately home in an upscale neighborhood on the Jersey Shore and was a member of a well-respected family. My parents appeared to be happily married, and my father was a successful businessman. They were the good times—Asbury Park's glory days. My mother was well then. It was only a year before the scream in the night. My family was oblivious to the demon lurking in the dark recesses of our home.
The beast sat outside a window, crouching like a wide-eyed gargoyle, baring his horrid teeth, waiting to slink through a crevice in the wall and destroy our unsuspecting family. That double demon didn't destroy my family all at once, that would have been too easy. He infiltrated our sanctuary and destroyed us slowly, like water falling, drop by drop, on the face of a stone. He lived in Pandemonium, that noisy hall of demons. I have met that demon face to face; he is legion. His name is mental illness."

All the Fish Are Butterflies is a tale of family, love, conflict, and calamity that leads to newborn strength and spirituality.