Home at Last

"The left side of my brain knew I was shooting page one photos for next week's edition of the paper, and the right side felt overwhelmed by the emotion of seeing my home about to go out to sea." Author Barbara DeWitt Smith had a colorful childhood -- outrageous costume and cocktail parties, a revolving door of nannies because the alcoholic stepmother couldn't keep help, and a household filled with the eccentricities unique to rich people. This was her normal. She and her four sisters grew up with social status, money, and privilege. However, hidden underneath it all was an invisible and disturbing reality -- emotional neglect and abuse. When Smith moves back to her family's summer home on Nantucket Island, a brutal three-day nor'easter washes away the million-dollar property, and her and her sisters' inheritance is lost at sea. So after a life spent with alcoholic and emotionally unavailable men -- most notably her father -- she suddenly finds herself starting over with nothing. Home at Last is a compelling and insightful memoir illustrating the unique challenges adult children of alcoholics face in trying to break out of the damaging patterns of denial, self-loathing, and destructive romantic relationships -- and shows how it is possible to successfully come out the other side through the wonders of therapy.