The Long Road to Happy - by Diane Morrow-Kondos (Paperback)

About the Book

If parents of the disabled find their family experiences rarely acknowledged, siblings often feel invisible--even to their own parents. In this frank and personal story, a family is changed with the arrival of a son--not because their father finally has the boy he always wanted but because it's soon clear David has severe intellectual disabilities. To his death, their father would insist David had nothing that couldn't be fixed by better parenting. And only years later, would the author realize how utterly alone her mom had for so long felt-- and how she worried about what would become of the son she loved so dearly after she was gone. With her passing, the care of David falls to the author. This was not a role she sought nor wanted. Indeed, she had always blamed her brother for the motherly love denied her after his birth. There was no road map for the journey Diane and David were about to start. But maybe there should be. This is the story of their long road to happy.

About the Author

The guardian of her younger brother, David, who has severe intellectual disabilities, Diane Morrow-Kondos serves on the board of The ARC of Oklahoma, an advocacy group for people with intellectual disabilities and their families, as well as on the boards of the Tulsa Friends of the Library and Lake Drive Home, where she serves on the Human Rights Committee and her brother lives. She holds a master's degree from Oklahoma State University. THE LONG ROAD TO HAPPY is her first book. Diane makes her home in Tulsa, with her husband, Steve.