For as long as she could remember, our next guest bore witness to her mother's mental illness. While growing up in the 1960s, her mother, Barbara, often liked to play games of make-believe and tell the children they were all going to Neverland--just like Peter Pan. But while the children knew it was all pretend, Barbara believed it to be all too true.

Our special guest this morning, author Peggy Kennedy’s book: “Approaching Neverland A Memoir of Epic Tragedy & Happily Ever After” recounts Peggy and her family's attempts to deal with their mother's mental illness during a time when it was little understood and even feared. With brutal honesty and surprising humor, Peggy shares the turbulence of growing up under the shadow of Barbara's illness, of being shuffled from one family member to the next, and of visiting her mother in the mental institution. As the years pass, the shadows of Barbara's challenges become a loving legacy in Peggy's quest to achieve happiness and fulfillment in her life. This book is a vivid, haunting portrayal of one woman's struggle to understand how the past fits in with her future, It is beautifully written and will stay with you long after the last page is read.  

Peggy Kennedy grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended Mills College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies. She sold real estate for eight years before splitting from her husband and moving to San Francisco to start an events company which developed sponsorship for the Bay Bridge 50th Birthday, Bay Bridge Permanent Lighting Campaign, In Concert Against AIDS, and San Francisco's annual Chinese New Year celebration.

Compelled to write her family's unique and moving story, Kennedy began work on her memoir, Approaching Neverland, in 2004. Peggy and her husband have been reunited for 19 years and live in the East Bay with their younger son, chocolate lab, three horses, and their older son's annoying cat. She continues to market the Southwest Airlines Chinese New Year Festival and Parade.