As the Dandelion Blooms

Michelle can feel middle age creeping up on her, and the feeling only intensifies when her mother passes away. Then she finds a hidden cache of letters in her mother’s jewelry box, written anonymously. The author writes of unspeakable abuse, trauma, and mental health struggles like her own.At a time when she has more questions than answers in her life, trying to balance her roles as a mother, wife, and artist, the letters only introduce more questions, more anguished emotions. They must have been written by her mother or one of her sisters, but which one? She has been estranged from her sisters for years so she can’t just pick up the phone and ask, and now her mother is gone, too.Then her middle daughter is brought home by the police. She is consumed by fears for her as well as for the well being of her other two daughters. As an interracial family, the potential for racial profiling and for her daughter becoming a target to law enforcement loom. Depression threatens to crawl back into her life. She can’t let her world be turned upside down again. Nightmares interrupt her slumber.She finds that the letters are filled with some of the very same questions that overwhelm her daily, yet she finds that each letter has an answer as well. Can she accept the answer? Can they help her and her daughters, too?Along the journey, her rebellious daughter joins her in the mystery of the letters. Can the letters become a vehicle for healing, possibly repairing her relationships with her daughter and her sisters? Only time would tell.“As the Dandelion Blooms” is a journey of healing, inspiration, and discovery. It is a story of facing hard questions and of overcoming past trauma. The answers she finds are more shocking than she could have imagined. Yet through the journey, Michelle learns to live with hope, healing, and resilience.