Nancy Vericker spoke at the library on Tuesday
Nancy Vericker is a self-described “former journalist and a nice church lady”, who always thought she might write a book about the fact that at age 47 she and her husband adopted a two-year- old while in the midst of raising three teenagers.
But it turns out, that wasn’t the book that was inside her waiting to come out. The book she did write, in 2018, is called ‘Unchained: Our Family’s Addiction Mess is our Message’.
Vericker, from Westchester County, wrote the book with her son JP, a former drug addict who now is board certified in the treatment of substance use disorder co-founder of Northeast Addictions Treatment Center in Massachusetts.
She was at the Highland Falls Library on Tuesday evening, at the invitation of the Friends of the Highland Falls Library and suggestion of Steve Evans, to talk about her book. About two dozen community residents were at the event, and heard Vericker tell the story about the “hellish” years of dealing with her son’s addiction
“I would guess that everyone here has probably been affected by someone’s substance abuse disorder,” she told the group. “The statistics are chilling — for every one person suffering with addiction there are a minimum of four other people affected.”
In her family’s case, she said, it was more like 20 people, when you add in grandparents, aunts & uncles, a girlfriend, etc.
“They were all pulled into JP’s ‘illness fused choices’,” Vericker said.
She told his story and the many years it took him to get sober, and how her family’s life revolved around him during those years.
“There were some ugly scenes,” she said.
As well, she noted that in writing the book and sharing the story with groups such as this one — and even on a broader scale, they’ve appeared on television, on podcasts and at events with dignitaries such as Cardinal Timothy Dolan — she has healed, and hopefully helped others heal as well.
“In a lot of ways, I am grateful for what we’ve been through,” Vericker said. “We are stronger for it. This is not a place of shame for me anymore. We survived. You can too.”
Vericker closed her remarks by talking about the art of Kintsugi, and showed off a bowl she created using that art.
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.
“I made this bowl,” she said. “Sometimes your struggles give you great strength.”
Vericker’s book is available on Amazon.com or from ClearFaithPublishing.com.
