Léonie Rosenstiel battles a court-appointed guardian for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s, while centuries-old family myths and miscommunication complicate every step. Her mother wants their story told, but the courts insist guardianship records remain sealed—forever. After years of Kafkaesque struggle, Léonie and a brilliant, unconventional attorney go to war with the system to expose the guardianship swamp and help others navigate it.

It reads almost like a thriller

—Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series

In the 1970s and 80s, John C. Donahue was hailed as a brilliant, difficult theater visionary, and his Children’s Theatre Company and School (CTC) reached national acclaim. Behind the curtain, however, the institution harbored more than two dozen sexual perpetrators. Donahue’s 1984 arrest for abusing students nearly ended CTC—yet the culture of complicity endured and the full truth was buried. In this memoir, Laura Stearns confronts her own childhood abuse at CTC, unpacks decades of institutional harm, and charts a trauma-informed path toward strength—calling for safer spaces for young artists.

Laura’s writing serves as a flotation device to carry the reader over a tumultuous tale.

—Cordelia Anderson, MA, executive board member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children