The Boy Who Knew Me When (From Boys to men Trilogy) (22 page)

                                        
The
End
Beginning

         S
tay tuned for part 2 in the From Boys to Men trilogy,

            The  Boy who knew me best, Brea
’s story.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to begin by thanking my husband and five beautiful children. Their patience and support during the writing process was one of the most valuable assets to getting the story of Julian and Jemma down on the page. It is not an easy task trying to write a full length novel while caring for a large family but together they made everything a breeze. I am beyond lucky to have been blessed with the beautiful thing that is being loved by them. So Tom, Griffin, Miriam, Georgia, Jemma & Sophia....THANK YOU FOR LOVING ME! And thank you to my awesome Heavenly father for seeing to it I had one incredible support system by my side.

I also want to thank my mother in law Joyce who offered me an ear whenever I felt like screaming and throwing in the towel. You do not know how much I appreciate and love everything you do for me.

And my greatest friend Olga, who always has such an enormous amount of faith in anything I aspire to do. You are truly one in a million, no matter how far apart we are, I cherish you.

Also to my amazing sister in law Michele who read and re-read this book over and over again until I am sure her eyes were bleeding. I could not have asked for a better editor!

My Grandmother for teaching me that beauty is so much more than a pretty face and for giving me the strength to survive.

And many more thanks to Kingsland Coffee Company who provided me a great stress free work zone full of killer coffee, to Grand Central Cafe who hosted any excuse to celebrate this process and always managed to cook me a perfect steak when times called for a perfect steak, to the Antlers Hotel , thank you so much for offering me a cozy place to write in peace.

To my Google plus and FB friends and family, thank you for supporting me and listening to my many rants and raves when my head was a giant mess.

And a BIG HUGE thank you to Julian, Jemma, Brandon, Jonathan & Nicolai who are so much more to me than names on a page.

Lastly, to my experiences. I have suffered the effects of Bi-Polar disorder since I was 13 years old. At that time it was called Manic depression. Mental illness has taken a huge toll on my life but thanks to so many supportive people I have been able to keep it under control keeping my incidents at a minimal level. There are days when I am bouncing off of the wall and days where I just want to cry but I always muscle through it. According to the US census approximately 57.7 million people suffer from some kind of mental illness, it is a horrible disease that can seriously take over your life if you do not seek help. If you suspect you need help or know someone who might need help please speak out. You have no idea how wonderful life can be if you treat the symptoms. You are not powerless, you are everything, you can beat it!