How to Survive the Trauma and Find Hope to Endure the Hidden Pain

When Dr. Beverly J. Armento was 23, in her first year of teaching, and after 17 years of physical and emotional abuse, she was at her darkest hour and considered suicide. She struggled through the night, listening to the voices in her head and hearing what former teachers and students were arguing with her about the pros and cons of that choice. By dawn, she came out on the other side of hopeless toward home. She had clarity on her purpose in life with the drive to live free from the fear and trauma in her current state.

Dr. Beverly J. Armento, professor, educator, author, speaker, and advocate, was responsible for her blind, artistic, and mentally ill mother. To people around her, she seemed to excel at school and in the world, but inside, Beverly was cowed by her mother's rage and delusions.

In her interview, she tells the story of twenty years struggling to survive the trauma and the next twenty years of how she found hope to survive through the hidden pain. 

INTERVIEW

 

As the "Seeing Eye Girl" for her blind, artistic, and mentally ill mother, Beverly Armento was intimately connected with and responsible for her, even though her mother physically and emotionally abused her. She was Strong Beverly at school—excellent in academics and mentored by caring teachers—but at home, she was Weak Beverly, cowed by her mother's rage and delusions.

Beverly's mother regained her sight with two corneal transplants in 1950 and went on to enjoy a moment of fame as an artist. Still, these positive turns did nothing to stop her disintegration into her delusional world of communists, radiation, and lurking Italians. To survive, Beverly had to be resilient and hopeful that better days could be ahead. But first, she had to confront essential ethical issues about her caregiving role in her family.

In this emotional memoir, Beverly shares the coping strategies she invented to get herself through the trials of her young life, and how school and church served as refuges over the course of her journey. Breaking the psychological chains that bound her to her mother would prove to be the most difficult challenge of her life—and, ultimately, the most liberating one.

2023 Nonfiction Book Awards Gold Winner

2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Biography