Letting Go; Loving Forever: A Mother and Child’s Journey Through Grief and Mental Health

After a devastating loss and in the wake of inexpressible grief, a mother and her child faced the unimaginable. This gut-wrenching story explores the first-hand accounts of both a mother’s worst nightmare—a suicidal child—and a teen’s life-and-death struggle to cope with a complicated mental health diagnosis.

With the facade of their perfect family crumbling, Margaret Baurer would have to learn to juggle it all and keep her family safe, as Lilo Baurer, a gender non-binary teen, was placed in residential treatment for mental illness and multiple suicide attempts.

While they took separate paths, Margaret and Lilo would undertake the journey of a lifetime together, encompassing thousands of miles, multiple treatment centers, and more close calls than they care to count. Through a roller coaster of emotions, they learned that the deepest love is worth fighting to preserve.

Margaret and Lilo’s true story, which often reads like a gripping work of fiction, serves as a poignant reminder to cherish the time we have with loved ones. It is a call to listen more, speak less, and rethink what it means to be a family in the face of traumatic, earth-shattering changes. It is also a rallying cry to unapologetically be yourself—a cry other LGBTQ+ teens and their parents need to hear. This book will serve as a beacon of hope, inspiring readers to shake off the harmful stigmas of mental illness and focus on what matters most—family.

Get it on Amazon.