The Light in His Soul: Lessons from My Brother's Schizophrenia

by Rebecca Schaper, Gerald Everett Jones

Overview

Call Richmond went missing. Twenty years later he showed up on a family member's doorstep. He was homeless, broken, and suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. For the next fourteen years, his sister Rebecca took on the struggle to restore him as they faced the dark traumas and painful memories of their past. The Light in His Soul: Lessons from My Brother's Schizophrenia is her intimate memoir of helping Call as she learns that his extraordinary gifts are helping heal her and her family. Both Call and Rebecca bring light to the dark shadows of their past.The book recaps the story of the award-winning documentary film A Sister's Call, supplemented by Rebecca's insights about the soul contract she has with her brother.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780999277133
Publisher:	PublishDrive
Publication date:	04/28/2018
Sold by:	PUBLISHDRIVE KFT
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	222
File size:	1 MB

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 Call Returns 7

Chapter 2 I Take Responsibility for Call's Care 15

Chapter 3 The Richmond Family Legacy 27

Chapter 4 Jim and Me, a Movie Romance 45

Chapter 5 Call Opens Up to Me 53

Chapter 6 Kim's Struggle and Her Revelation 67

Chapter 7 My Mission and My Family's Journey 75

Chapter 8 Call's Treatment Plan 81

Chapter 9 I See a Light 87

Chapter 10 Thinking About Mother's Anguish 95

Chapter 11 I Reflect on Abuse and Its Consequences 107

Chapter 12 Call's Process 117

Chapter 13 Call's Symptoms Return 125

Chapter 14 Dealing with My Overwhelm 133

Chapter 15 Return to the Family Home 147

Chapter 16 Kim's Path to Recovery 161

Chapter 17 The Schapers Come Together and Reflect 167

Chapter 18 Call's Reawakening 181

Chapter 19 Lauren Chases the Sun 191

Epilogue 197

Acknowledgments 209

For Further Reading 213

Support Organizations 215

Discussion Questions 217

Watch the Documentary 219

About the Authors 221

Editorial Reviews

2018-05-09
A woman reconnects with her schizophrenic brother when he reappears in her life after a 20-year absence in this debut memoir, written with novelist Jones (Choke Hold, 2017, etc.). Call Richmond Jr. disappeared from Greenville, Georgia, just days after his mother died from an overdose in 1977. He'd recently dropped out of Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, and was thought of as a "cheerful but disturbed and misunderstood young man"; at the time, he'd not yet been diagnosed with schizophrenia. For the next two decades, he became a drifter, hopping trains and making rare contact with his family members, never divulging his whereabouts. His 1997 return to Greenville was as abrupt as his departure had been. Schaper, Call's sister, received a telephone call from her mother-in-law, who told her that Call was on her doorstep. The memoir recalls the author's efforts to help her sibling, including taking him to the barber and clipping his "half inch too long" toenails, making sure that he had the right medical care, and getting him set up in an apartment. Schaper filmed each of her meetings with him, which she incorporated into an award-winning 2012 documentary, A Sister's Call. In this book, she reflects on those events and charts her own search for catharsis. Her writing expresses her unfaltering, sisterly devotion and her will to understand her brother: "I decided I had to be his voice until he was able to find his own." The author addresses the stigma of mental illness head-on, even detailing how her own family was wary of Call. At the same time, she's open about growing up with an abusive father who suffered from PTSD and a mother who, like Call, experienced auditory hallucinations, which she tried to suppress with alcohol. The book also addresses the hereditary component of mental illness when Schaper's daughter is diagnosed with an eating disorder. The power of this memoir lies in the way it demystifies mental health issues by examining them from a deeply personal perspective. Individuals and families facing similar experiences will certainly find solace from it. (Includes black-and-white family photos.)A moving, passionate personal narrative of trauma and healing.

Kirkus Reviews