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- For the love of a son : a memoir of addiction, loss, and hope / by Oake, Scott,author.; Hingston, Michael,author.;
- "Since 2016, Canada has seen more than 40,000 deaths from opioid overdoses. When veteran Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Scott Oake first held his infant son, Bruce, in his arms, he could have never imagined that just 25 years later, Bruce would become part of those staggering numbers. In those early days, Scott, a new father, watched Bruce with awe, marveling at the potential of his funny, charismatic boy. As Bruce got older, though, he struggled to fit in at school and began showing signs of having ADHD, including a streak of impulsiveness that often got him into trouble. Scott and his wife, Anne, did their best to support him, and for a time, he found community and belonging in boxing and local rap battles, but when Bruce was pulled into a world of drugs and gangs, Scott and Anne got a crash course in the reality of loving someone battling substance use disorder. Then one quiet day, Scott got the phone call that haunts everyone: Bruce had accidentally overdosed. At just twenty-five, Scott's vibrant, creative, first-born son was gone forever. It was a loss that could have broken a man, a marriage, a family -- but Scott, Anne, and their younger son Darcy instead turned the worst day of their lives into a way to help the thousands of Canadians struggling with addiction. After nearly a decade of fundraising and battling red tape and political machinations they launched the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre, a free, revolutionary treatment centre staffed by addicts and alcoholics in recovery. For the Love of a Son is the story of a father's unconditional love for his son. It's also a tale of a broken country's failing response to the opioid crisis -- what has been called a national epidemic. Above all, it's the story of a young man who never got to finish growing up and a family who would do anything to give others every possible chance to find their way home"--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Personal narratives.; Oake, Bruce, 1985-2011; Oake, Scott; Drug addicts; Fathers and sons; Parents of drug addicts; Sons; Sons;
- Pluck : a memoir of a Newfoundland childhood and the raucous, terrible, amazing journey to becoming a novelist / by Morrissey, Donna,1956-author.;
- "A deeply personal account of love's restorative ability as it leads renowned novelist Donna Morrissey through mental illness, family death, and despair to becoming a writer--told with charm and inimitable humour. When Donna Morrissey left the only home she had ever known, an isolated Newfoundland settlement, at age 16, she was ready for adventure. She had grown up without television or telephones but had absorbed the tragic stories and comic yarns of her close-knit family and community. The death of her infant brother marked the family, and years later, Morrissey suffers devastating guilt about the accidental death of her teenage brother, whom she'd enticed to join her in the oilfields. Her misery was compounded by her own misdiagnosis of a terminal illness, all of which contributed to crippling anxiety and an actual diagnosis of PTSD. Many of those events and themes would eventually be transformed and recast as fictional gold in Morrissey's novels. In another writer's hands, Morrissey's account of her personal story could easily be a tragedy. Instead, she combines darkness and light, levity and sadness into her tale, as her indomitable spirit and humour sustain her. Morrissey's path takes her from the drudgery of being a grocery clerk (who occasionally enlivens her shift with recreational drugs) to western oilfields, to marriage and divorce and working in a fish-processing plant to support herself and her two young children. Throughout her struggles, she nourishes a love of learning and language. Morrissey layers her account of her life with stories of those who came before her, a breed rarely seen in the modern world. It centers around iron-willed women: mothers and daughters, wives, sisters, teachers and mentors who find the support, the wind for their wings, outside the bounds given to them by nature. And it is a mysterious older woman she meets in Halifax who eventually unleashes the writer that Morrissey is destined to become. An inspiring and insightful memoir, Pluck illustrates that even when you find yourself unravelling, you can find a way to spin the yarns that will save you--and delight readers everywhere."--
- Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Morrissey, Donna, 1956-; Anxiety disorders; Brothers; Novelists, Canadian (English);
Results 31 to 32 of 32 | « previous