A Mother's Right to Cry

By Alice McLaughlin

This book is the personal experiences of my son and my familys walk through grief. My son was seventeen when he was accused of murdering a fourteen year old girl. The story recounts much of the emotion and fear and hurt throughout the story. Also, the story recounts the pain of having a child with mental illness.

Throughout the story there is an underlying theme of hope in spite of horrific events. This story is to walk the reader through the grief and poignancy of our losses, while bringing the comfort and peace of God.

Anyone reading this book, including men, will experience the emotions and tears as they plow through the stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781475976588

Alice McLaughlin

Alice McLaughlin is currently a Mary Kay consultant. Previously an LPN in the state of Nevada. Attended Northern Nevada Community College in Elko, Nevada. She and her husband, Bill, have been married for 26 years. They raised two grandchildren who are adults now. She has been writing poetry and short stories for most of her adult life. This is her first published book. She is an ordained minister and leads a group for Seniors at the church where she attends. She also leads a prayer group once a week. She lives in Jerome Idaho with her husband, one grandson, and 2 dogs and one cat.

Book preview

A Mother’s

Right To Cry

Alice McLaughlin

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

A MOTHER’S RIGHT TO CRY

Copyright © 2013 by Alice McLaughlin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-7657-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-7658-8 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 03/09/2013

Contents

1. This Mother’s Journey

2. A Mother’s Right to Cry

3. James, the Armed Robber

4. Terrifying Moments and Broken Lives

5. The Anguish of Being in Jail

6. The Preliminary Hearing

7. Terror, Tears, and Hysterics

8. Run, Baby, Run!

9. I Fall to Pieces Like a Broken Toy

10. Tears, Pills, and Desperation

11. Prison for Life

12. Prison Life/ Playing in the Devil’s Playground

13. Issues of the Heart

14. Grief and Dying in Fiery Circumstances

15. Maryann’s Story

16. Polio: The Dreaded Disease

17. Looking Back over Time

1

This Mother’s Journey

This book came out of the journey of meeting fear and grief’s unrelenting force.

In these heartbreaking happenings within this walk through life, I would never have made it if it had not been for the strong core belief that God was escorting me through these valleys. When He talks about walking through the valley, He does not intend for us to go through these times alone.

Throughout this book, there is one example after another of His presence in each instance, guiding, comforting, and encouraging, either by impression or the touch of a friend. The belief and understanding of His written word, the Bible, gives unlimited grace and peace while enduring tough times. For many years, He has been an integral part of our life, and during this time, people were used in many instances to uplift, encourage, and pray when it was just too hard to do it alone.

A Mother’s Right to Cry reveals how precious our loved ones are and how fragile life is.

Then the subtle movement of God begins to bring forth the unexplainable sense of inner peace.

This book is written to encourage all who have faced crisis and trauma. We just don’t know when trouble will come knocking on our door. It appears that life is good, or at least nothing is going on that we can’t handle. Then one day or night, we get a phone call, and our life goes from peaceful to unbelievable pain. When this happens and we can’t think, breath, or grasp what is happening, we need someone or something to turn to. This is when God, in His infinite mercy, shows up in the form of friends and loved ones to help us make it through the next minutes, hours, days, and weeks.

When your crisis has culminated, and you are trying to put your life back together into some sense of normalcy, I hope this book will help you see that God has been with you through it all, giving you the strength that you didn’t know you had. When the storms of life hit, they often hit hard. I’ve found that in the painful beatings of the fear of the unknown, terror, stress and confusion, He brought that peace that passes all understanding, and the stronghold of joy that got me through it all. That is why people thought I was trying to be Superwoman when I was fighting to stay sane. I felt like a swimmer trying to stay afloat while the waves of crisis were pulling me down. Yet my God, my heavenly Father, was my life raft.

Rex, a friend of mine, who is a pastor at the church I attend, writes and records music. He had a bad dream one night and when he woke up, the Lord, in His still quiet voice began to reassure Rex with the words of this song, Walking’ on the Streets of Gold. His wife died several years ago, and he believes she is in heaven. The dream was so bad that it shook Rex to the core. With the writing of this song, he became calm and assured that his wife really is in heaven, dancing’ on the streets of gold.

When I speak of the Lord speaking to Rex, it is words that came into Rex’s mind as thoughts inspired by his love and belief in God.

I asked him if I could put the chorus of his song in this book, and he agreed. He recorded this song and two others to share with the readers of this book.

My prayer and hope is that as you read this book and realize God’s presence throughout it that you will want to hear