Mom's Search for Meaning

Mom's Search for Meaning was awarded Honorable Mention in Writer's Digest 2023 Self-Published Book Awards. Paralyzed by guilt, grief, and PTSD after her 2-year-old daughter Alice died in her sleep of unknown causes, acupuncturist Melissa Monroe determined not to become a victim in the story of her life. While taking the advice she had given to many grief and trauma patients throughout the years, hoping she could create a meaningful life without closure, she took notes throughout her healing process. Struggling to advance her timeline beyond that of her daughter's - and still eager to be the keeper of Alice's stories - Melissa began to write about Alice's life and the impact of her death. She became her own lab rat, trying various approaches to healing with the hope that her experience might be helpful to others stuck in a trauma time loop. As much a study of trauma's effect on time perception as it is an intimate view into the heart and mind of a bereaved mother, "Mom's Search for Meaning" shows us that meaning resides in the search itself ... with a spoonful of gallows humor to help the medicine go down.