ABOUT THE BOOK

A luminous story of how love triumphs over pain, love transcends fear, and love never dies; this debut memoir from a mother grieving her young-adult son’s death is a must-read for any parent who has lost a child, is raising a child from the edge of their seat, or whose family struggles with addiction. 

When Sally’s twenty-one-year-old son died in a boat accident, her greatest fear is realized. Christopher was often drawn to risk and struggled with addiction. In this riveting memoir, Sally captures the wild ride of his jam-packed life and her deep love for him while reflecting on her own childhood and family’s legacy of alcoholism. 

Sally shares insights about what it’s like to experience the emotional aftershocks of acute grief, filtered through the dual lens of her personal experience as a mother and her professional vantage point as a psychotherapist. Even if they have not been touched by loss in this way, readers may see themselves in Sally’s bittersweet illusion of trying to keep her wild child safe, in how she is challenged to let go of her fear, guilt, and regret in order to forgive herself, and in the ways grief teaches her about the power of love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sally McQuillen, LCSW, CADC, is a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in addiction recovery, grief and trauma healing. An avid reader with a double major in writing and dance criticism in college, she began working in public relations and marketing prior to obtaining her master’s degree in social work. Reaching for Beautiful is Sally’s first book. She and her husband live on the north shore of Chicago where they raised their three children.

TALKING POINTS

• Understanding the complex grief of losing a child 
• Dealing with the guilt of not being able to protect and save your child 
• Navigating the impact of the death of a child on a marriage or relationships 
• Supporting a friend or family member who has lost a child
• Moving through feelings of grief to find connection and peace 
• Writing to process grief and promote healing
• Raising and understanding a wild child with learning differences, addiction, and/or mental health concerns 
• Recognizing the physiological and psychological impacts of grief
• The importance of finding ways to keep the spirit of your child alive 
• The importance of keeping one’s heart open in order to survive
• Generational trauma ~ the impact of a child’s addiction on a mother struggling to break a family legacy of addiction 
• The dual lens of a grieving mother and therapist specializing in helping others through addiction, grief, addiction, and trauma
• How grief can be especially alienating when the loss affects an entire community 
• How Sally found safety in letting go of fear, forgiving herself, and finding purpose 
• How Sally continued to parent as she grieved