A Mother's Story: Angie Doesn't Live Here Anymore Paperback – July 18, 2014

Addiction is sly and relentless beast-a disease-that takes over a person’s mind, body and spirit and robs them of their life. It also has a devastating effect upon the people who love them as they watch their loved one slowly slip away. When the person who is addicted is a beloved child, the depth of the pain, heartache and confusion is incomprehensible. We become addicted to our loved ones’ addiction. It is a family disease. I know because addiction has paid a visit to my own family.Maggie Romero captures the essence of being the mother of a drug-addicted daughter, Angie so eloquently and honestly that I felt I was re-living my own story. As Maggie describes, you are dealing with the child you love and the addiction at the same time. You never stop loving them but loving them takes on a new shape as you try to navigate around the deception, lies and manipulative, self-destructive behaviors that their addiction creates.The unique aspect of this memoir is that Maggie explores her own addiction and the impact of having an alcoholic father. Through her vivid descriptions and honest introspection, we as readers develop an understanding of not only intergenerational links to the addiction but also to the deep ache in a mother’s heart for her lost daughter. We see Angie’s goodness and beauty and therefore grieve for the losses. We see Maggie’s daily struggles to find a place of peace in the midst of all the chaos.Her writing flows seamlessly through various timeframes and paints a clear portrait not only of addiction but also of one mother’s valiant struggle to find her own path to recovery. With piercing honest and candid self-assessment, Maggie shows the fine line between loving and letting go.Once I started reading this beautifully –written story, I had a hard time putting it down. There are no storybook endings but the story left me feeling uplifted and hopeful. I highly recommend this riveting memoir to parents who struggle with addicted children as well as to anyone who wants to learn more about the dynamics of addiction. Besides being a satisfying read, it can also serve as an excellent resource for those who serve the addicte

This is a first for me, I've never written a book review on Amazon, but this book is so well written and touched me deeply, I had to share a few thoughts. I LOVE this book. It is an intensely personal, moving story. Maggie writes about her own and her family's battle with the debilitating killer disease of addiction and co dependence. As I read, I found myself nodding my head and saying to myself " yes that's me", "this is us", and "this is our family." I cried, felt the familiar pains in my chest and stomach as Maggie described the ugly, awful truth of being the Mom of being an addict's Mom. The book is a quick read, I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. It feels as if the reader had come upon and absorbing every word of someone's diary. While at times actually painful to read the ultimate solution to this agony which Maggie arrives at is - that letting go is not the same as giving up, which provides hope. It was the same solution I had arrived at after years of dealing with the drug addicted use of my own son. I recommend this book to everyone so they may stop judging this baffling disease. My gratitude to Maggie for sharing her life story, for loving her daughter so deeply and being so brave to share it with the world. This book put many things in perspective for me and I know that everyone who reads it will not only gain knowledge and a better understanding of the deepest depths of addiction of one's own child, the unconditional love and hope that a Mother feels for her child.

Angie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is one of the most realistic portraits of addiction that I’ve read. And I’m a retired addiction family therapist. I’ve heard lots of stories. Maggie Romero powerfully describes the destructive power of the addict numbing their pain with drugs and parents numbing their pain with rescuing. Both addictions are insidious and deadly. Fortunately, Romero finds her way to recovery. Sadly, her daughter does not. In our time when heroin addiction is killing in record numbers, this book gives hope and guidance to terrified loved ones.

Full disclosure: Maggie Romero is my dearest friend. Together we dealt with our issues with our mothers, our eating disorders, our children. I was babysitting for Angie and Carlos the night that Caroline was born. I was her witness at her divorce hearing and she invited me to stay with her for a week when my own marriage was breaking up, even though she and Gene were in a new relationship at the time. We encouraged each other as we each grew in confidence and maturity. My daughter and Angie were best friends - "bosom buddies" - when they were little girls. I have loved and believed in and rooted for Angie forever.So to read this book when I know what the family went through for all those years - to see her unflinching gaze turned on herself as much as on her daughter and the surrounding circumstances - to know what courage and determination it took this private person to be willing to search her heart, mind, soul, and then put it out there for the entire world to see - awes me incredibly. Maggie is adamant that, even more than aiding in her own recovery by being able to read her own story objectively now that she can hold it in print, no other mother should ever go through what she has gone through and have to make the same mistakes that she did. What she has thought of her entire life, and what she continues to do even in the midst of this, her greatest pain, is to help others and to spare them to the extent possible the suffering that she has experienced.My hat is off to you, Maggie. This is a searingly intimate story of a trip through hell that hasn't ended yet. It is powerful and relentless and should be used as a guide and a comfort and a validation to other parents everywhere who are dealing with the same heartbreak, the same ups and downs, the same eerie sensation that there is always another shoe about to be dropped.