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Holding Hope: One Family’s Odyssey through Lyme Disease and Psychosis
In the autumn of 2014, Marabai Rose is a healthy thirty-eight-year-old mother of two. Then an unknown illness ravages her body, sending her into respiratory failure and full paralysis. As Rose searches for the cause of her disability, she is misdiagnosed and left to fight for answers in a healthcare system that repeatedly dismisses her as mentally ill. When she finally gets an accurate diagnosis of Lyme disease, the relief is short lived, as she quickly realizes that treatment is brutal and does not guarantee recovery.
Yet she and her family do heal, finding a new normal until another crisis takes her husband Scott’s mental health spirals out of control. Rose desperately tries to find him care while living through the heartbreak and terror of his violent, psychotic episodes. When she finally accepts that her husband Scott is lost to her, she begins the painstaking process of sorting through her past and building a new life for herself and her children.
Holding Hope is, at its heart, about resilience. While this memoir exposes the sexism and dysfunction of a system that allows so many to be persistently ill, it concludes on a hopeful note, with a path forward and hard-earned wisdom. Any reader facing similar struggles will find insight through Rose’s journey.
Holding Hope is on the 2024 Indiana Author's Award short list for best debut work.
Yet she and her family do heal, finding a new normal until another crisis takes her husband Scott’s mental health spirals out of control. Rose desperately tries to find him care while living through the heartbreak and terror of his violent, psychotic episodes. When she finally accepts that her husband Scott is lost to her, she begins the painstaking process of sorting through her past and building a new life for herself and her children.
Holding Hope is, at its heart, about resilience. While this memoir exposes the sexism and dysfunction of a system that allows so many to be persistently ill, it concludes on a hopeful note, with a path forward and hard-earned wisdom. Any reader facing similar struggles will find insight through Rose’s journey.
Holding Hope is on the 2024 Indiana Author's Award short list for best debut work.
250 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 7, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 24, 2025
Wow, just wow. My library will be hosting Marabai to speak about her book, and I decided I should read it. I am so glad I did. I just couldn’t believe everything she had to go through, it was just awful and I was so angry for her half of the book. I am also a mother and the courage it took her to protect her children was just amazing. I’m so glad she was able to get through it all. I highly recommend this book.
August 10, 2023
Beautifully written. The author is so transparent and open that it makes the reader feel like a close friend. The humanity in this is so raw that I think everyone can relate. This is a book of hope and promise in a tumultuous time.
August 23, 2024
A tale of hope and perseverance through a two year misdiagnosis of Lyme Disease and a husband's descent into madness.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews