‘Approaching Neverland: A Memoir of Epic Tragedy & Happily Ever After’

SAN RAMON, Calif.— Imagine a mother attempting to murder her five children and telling them they will soon be in Neverland. Imagine, too, surviving this attempted murder and still loving one’s mother unreservedly. Peggy Kennedy, author of “Approaching Neverland: A Memoir of Epic Tragedy & Happily Ever After” (published by iUniverse) tells such a story where love is unconditional. Drawing on the certain knowledge that mental illness was the reason why her mother behaved as she did while knowing she still loved her children, Kennedy shares how she managed to overcome tragedy by the support she and her siblings gave to each other.

During a time when mental illness was little understood, not to mention feared, Kennedy and her siblings were fortunate to have people explain that their mother was suffering from an illness. Still, there was turbulence from growing up under the shadow of this illness and of being shuffled from one family member to the next. In addition, one of the author’s worst fears was that she’d become like her mother even though there were parts of her mother she wanted to resemble.

Mental illness was not the only situation the author had to handle: A near fatal car crash paralyzes her brother, her sister is murdered, and another sibling dies from AIDS. However, Kennedy maintains a sense of humor through all the tragedies and even reunites with her husband, whom she’d left for another man early in the marriage. “Approaching Neverland” shows how one woman rose above her tragic past while reminding us that mental illness does not mean one must forfeit knowing how to love and be loved.

About the Author

Peggy Kennedy grew up in the Bay Area and attended Mills College, where she received a degree in Asian studies. She sold real estate for eight years before splitting with her husband and moving to San Francisco to start an events business that developed sponsorship for the Bay Bridge 50th Birthday Celebration, the Bay Bridge Permanent Lighting Campaign, In Concert Against AIDS, and the annual Chinese New Year celebration. Compelled to write her family’s unique and moving story, Kennedy began work on “Approaching Neverland” in 2004. She won 1st prize for non-fiction from the 2008 San Francisco Writer’s Conference. She has been reunited with her husband for 19 years and lives in the East Bay with their younger son, chocolate lab, three horses and their son’s annoying cat. Kennedy continues to market the Chinese New Year celebration.