Click Here To Purchase Alive! A Courageous Story of Addiction,True Love & Forgiveness 

Author: Eileen P. DeClemente

Publisher: Infinity Publishing

ISBN: 0-7414-4578-6

Alive - one woman’s courageous story of how addiction changed her life.

I read the first chapter this intriguing book had to offer and was pretty much captivated after that. It was so interesting to read how drugs can affect a family but rewarding to finish the book and realise people can change.  

Author DeClemente had been an addict most of her life, having her first drink  at the tender age of 11 years. For the following 26 years she used drugs and much alcohol to help ease her worries. Things got so dire she was taking more than 90 pills a day.

The back of this book points out how DeClemente should be dead by now. Perhaps this is the motivation she found for writing this book - to show others drugs are bad and that just because she survived, the next addict may not.  

One day, with her children watching, DeClemente had a particularly bad episode prompting her decision to get help. Her husband is immensely cross with her for letting things get to this stage and furious that his wife is setting such a bad influence in front of the children.

Her children, Missy and Sara, feel emotional by what’s happened but are angry that their mother will have to be away again at some hospital. Sara however tells her sister “Don’t be mean to Mom.” DeClemente’s husband becomes rather snappy because he knows she can help it and he is determined to see her succeed. 

What follows are weeks of painful events that put an enormous strain on the family’s life. DeClemente finds herself crying and soon paranoia, a symptom often caused as a result of drugs, takes over.

There is one section in this book where she is talking about how the family attend dinner one evening and she feels like cameras are watching them and listening into their conversations. In the end she feels so overwhelmed and desperate to get out of the situation that DeClemente opts to sneak off to her room to be “alone and cry”.

This must have been an awful time not being able to sit down and enjoy a lovely meal with her loved ones. I did feel so sorry for this courageous woman and can only imagine what kind of life it was. Eventually, however, people showed her the “right direction to take” and helped her find her way through that “very small door”.

At the end of this book we learn DeClemente has now got Alzheimer’s disease. She tells of how her condition has worsened to not only forgetfulness but a sense of disorientation during familiar tasks or activities. Even though her husband has stood by her and been supportive, she feels some days unable to get out of bed and does not want things to end. She talks of how she and her husband cry together being afraid of the unknown, but also believing in God and that if this book can at least touch one person - she has achieved what she set out to do.

I’m not sure this is a read for everyone. It is deeply moving in places and upsetting. However I can see the attraction some people might have to reading this kind of material and encourage those of you brave enough to learn more about the life DeClemente had and its aftermath.  A raw but courageous story.

 The above review was contributed by: Jessica Roberts:  Jessica is a book reviewer for a local newspaper and has reviewed for a national women's magazine too. She has had various articles published in magazines and has now completed her novel. Jessica currently lives in West Yorkshire and enjoys walking in the dales and woodlands as part of her hobby as well as, of course, reviewing books. To read more of Jessica's reviews  CLICK HERE