It was Saturday, February 8, 2014. I’d driven eight hours from my home in Paso Robles to Redding, California, only to find myself in a parking lot behind a discount Dollar Store. There, a refrigerator box lay on its side, draped with thick brown insulated blankets and pushed up against the back wall of the store. Parked next to the box, a giant yellow shopping cart overflowed with black trash bags.  

I surveyed the scene and crouched down, looked inside the box, and saw a woman I barely recognized sitting cross-legged. Her tiny black shoes looked too small for her feet.

She wore her long white hair in a topknot, and she was dressed in black leggings and a black sweatshirt. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. It seemed that the noise of my car had woken her. Still crouching, I peered into her icy steel eyes and said, “Hello, Mother,” I said, “I’ve been looking for you.”

 Seven Stitches in Neverland: A Daughter, Her Homeless Mother, and the Peter Pan Costumes that Mended the Past is an 80,000-word memoir about rescuing my mother from homelessness after thirteen years of estrangement. Those two words—homelessness and estrangement—are all too common in families today. While my story is unique, it’s also universal, revealing the difficult journey of rehoming family members and finding forgiveness.

When I found my mother living in a cardboard box, I was a middle school drama teacher, and I happened to be casting Disney’s Peter Pan the Musical. The juxtaposition of the lost boys in the musical and my own feeling of being a lost child fuels my memoir—a narrative of rescuing my mother and my show, both teetering on the brink of catastrophe due to a lack of resources and support.

Reconnecting with my mother and rehousing her challenged my faith in everything within me. I couldn’t forget the abuse I’d experienced from her as a child and the mental illness that caused her to withdraw from her family and society. But once I helped her settle into a small apartment near my home, I asked her to help sew costumes for Peter Pan, beginning with Captain Hook’s jacket. This forced us, mother and daughter, to overcome overwhelming odds in learning to forgive and reconcile the past, literally stitching our relationship back together.

Seven Stitches in Neverland is a compelling story that will provide a unique perspective on the issues of homelessness and family estrangement. The American Psychological Association and the National Alliance to End Homelessness report that 2% of the U.S. population is homeless, and from 6 to 27% are estranged from family. This means that millions of people are looking for hope, which is why I wrote the book.

My story speaks to those who have suffered from mental illness, those who have experienced homelessness, and to the adult children of abuse who may be seeking healing and forgiveness for themselves. These are not easy issues, and they can’t be healed in just a few months’ time. Seven Stitches in Neverland shows how the process of forgiveness begins, and how the journey of reuniting with a lost loved one is possible, even if it’s not easy.

My story touches upon themes of intergenerational healing, redemption, and resilience similar to Meredith May’s The Honey Bus, and perseverance through self-education and overcoming childhood trauma similar to Tara Westover’s Educated. It has the potential to raise awareness and spark discussions on a wide range of national media platforms, including television shows, podcasts, webinars, and radio.

As a Drama, English, and Special Education teacher, I’ve directed numerous large-scale theatrical productions and musicals. I am also the founder of H.O.P.E. Theatre, Inc., based on my published academic research on adolescents with autism in theatre, with the mission of supporting individuals with special needs and people recovering from homelessness. My work has been published in Story Summit’s We See You, We Hear You Anthology, and my online articles reach thousands monthly.

These credentials speak to my understanding of story and my ability to accomplish big projects. But the most important credential of all is the fact that my mother now lives five minutes from my home in her own apartment, has reestablished relationships with her children and grandchildren, and receives support from a circle of friends.

The intimate, personal story of Seven Stitches in Neverland will warm the hearts of readers, but it will also lend an important voice to the discussion of homelessness and estrangement in this country and beyond. 

The book is 80 percent complete and can be delivered within four months of signing a contract.