Evelyn Leite is a talented, accomplished author who has courageously written an autobiography that carries a message of triumph and hope. She humbly and transparently shares her life experiences of growing up in the 40s & 50s using such heartwarming stories that take the reader back to their own often bittersweet memories where warm family traditions are mixed in with often painful, conflicting family dynamics. This is a book you will want to be the first to get-timeless and authentically written-one you will read over and over again.-Nancy Schuler-Schmidt, M.S, M.ED., LAC, LIMHP Evelyn Leite has been in the addiction and mental health profession for 35 years and has a private practice, Living With Solutions. She also founded a non-profit corporation, A Center For Training And Restoration. She is an author and she holds workshops nation wide which are devoted to teaching individuals and families about mental health and addiction, much of her work is trauma related with men and women who have been abused . Because her work as a humanitarian has been widely recognized she was installed in the SD Hall of Fame in 2008. Her work has included founding a youth center in Ft Pierre, SD, helping establish a women's shelter in Pierre, SD, and helping to establish the Hope Center , a day shelter for the homeless in Rapid City, SD. Currently she is finishing a 4th memoir. Much of her work is a personal story of family abuse that asks a key question: How does a loving father turn into an alcoholic verbal abuser? And why am I just like him? Addiction, pain, and healing are outlined in a manner that will be more than familiar to those raised under similar conditions; but the difference in these memoirs lie in the focus on how Evelyn Leite chooses to survive her circumstances and rise above them. Her evolving perception of both of her parents is one of the highlights presented as Leite grows older: "I just look at them, my parents, so far removed from the reality of my life, so unaware of the aching, agonizing, humiliating pain I live with...so unbelievably ignorant."
