Shattered Illusions Project

This website exists to preserve the story and memory of my mother.

Shattered Illusions tells the story of some of the most difficult years of her life. But those years were not her entire life.

This is a place for both.

Remembering Tracey

Photographs. Stories. Memories.

The difficult years were part of my mother’s life, but they were never the whole of it. This collection is a place to remember the person beyond the pages of the memoir.

Read Shattered Illusions

Shattered Illusions is the story of my family, my mother, and the years that changed the way i understood both.

I chose to make this memoir available for free.
You can read it here, from beginning to end.

Resources

If you are struggling, grieving a suicide loss, or trying to help someone you love, you do not have to navigate it alone.

I’ve collected crisis, mental health, suicide-loss, and fraud resources that may help.

Why This Project Exists

I began writing Shattered Illusions while trying to understand what had happened to my family and to my mother.

Somewhere along the way, I began to see my life differently. The roles i had always known-mother, father, son-gave way to something more complicated. I began to see my parents not simply as my parents, but as people.

This project grew from that change in perspective. The memoir preserves what happened. This website is also here to preserve who my mother was.

Keep Going.

This project was created through loss, but I don’t want it to exist only because of loss.

If something here helps someone feel less alone, understand someone they love a little better, or simply keep going, then sharing was worth it.