Love's All That Makes Sense: A Mother Daughter Memoir By Sakeenah and Anika Francis 

Hear Sakeenah and Anika give Keynote Address to Annual General Meeting at Recovery  Resources in Cleveland May 1

"I cannot recommend this wonderful book highly enough for each and every reader who cares about a world where people love and care for one another." Bookpleasures

Love Triumphs Over Mental Illness The Lakewood Observer

"This book will provide validation and inspiration for families who face similar struggles, as well as provide mental health care providers with perspectives that can inform care." Dr Sarah Y Vinson, Black Mental Health

"a wonderful book for those looking for deeper insights into how people live with and negotiate schizophrenia as patients and as family members" 5 Stars Amazon.com

Triumph of Love and Family 5 Stars Amazon.com

Sakeenah Francis describes her life as a Cinderella story in reverse. She grew up in a well-respected, middle-class African American family. She went to college, was homecoming queen, married, began a career and had children. Then, schizophrenia struck and she lost everything. She went from homecoming queen to being homeless and institutionalized. Sakeenah Francis tells her daughter about her darkest moments of living with schizophrenia in a series of letters that chronicle the first time she heard voices in her head, her hospitalizations, her struggle to parent, and her arduous path to long-term recovery.

Both shaken and moved by her mother’s revealing letters, Anika faces the haunting effects her mother’s mental illness had on her. After years of keeping the secret about her mother’s illness, Anika breaks her silence voicing what it was like to grow up with a mother with a severe mental illness.She describes the emotional roller coaster created by her mother’s bouts of recovery and how this impacted her well into adulthood.

Though Sakeenah lost many bouts in her early struggles with schizophrenia, she kept striving. Through it all, there was love which at times was the only thing that made sense to Sakeenah and Anika. Love gave them the strength and resilience to heal and piece together that which schizophrenia had torn apart in their lives. This sobering story carries a message of hope that will be inspiring to people affected by a severe mental illness and the web of people connected to them.

Sakeenah and Anika on Cleveland's TV 20

About The Authors  

Sakeenah Francis is passionate about raising awareness about mental illness. She is a mental health advocate and speaker who has given over fifty speeches about her experiences living with schizophrenia for over thirty years and being in long-term recovery for the past fifteen years. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio

Anika Francis was exposed early on to schizophrenia’s ravaging effects as she tried to cope and support her mother thus she understands the issues facing children of mentally ill parents. Yoga played such an important role in her healing that she became a yoga therapist and now teaches people how to use yoga for mental wellness and healing. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Anika and Sakeenah on NPR's The Health Show

Hear mother and daughter interviewed about the book

Three Youtube interviews at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFs3xTPodrk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsjOYeL6uuo  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd5__GBAjWA

Love's All That Makes Sense ISBN 978-1927637005, 260 pages, 19.95 Distributed by Ingram and available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble , Kindle, Kobo Google Play and at other retailers