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The Sky Has Fallen: The Connection between Abuse and Societal Dysfunction throughout the World

Ann Meyer
Morrighan House Publishing (2008)
ISBN 9780979273223
Reviewed by Gina Holland for RebeccasReads (5/08)

Ann Meyer brings us along on a trip through her life, with her family, their addictions and their struggles. We learn about her husband’s addictions and how he brought the children into his addiction as well. In the first chapter, we learn how her husband was a serious marijuana smoker, which he said he was doing to keep from drinking alcohol.  They have a son, who is asthmatic. As the son gets a little older, he begins drinking and smoking marijuana as well. This worries Ann terribly because from the time he was little, he’d had trouble breathing.  When Ann tries to figure out how her son is getting the alcohol into the house and into his room, she realizes there can only be one answer. The person who has been providing her son with alcohol is his father. She catches them numerous times smoking marijuana together, and she does not approve. She seeks help for her son, but instead ends up talking to a doctor herself. He doesn’t provide much assistance, so she stops going. Ann has no idea that her daughter is also involved in this drinking and smoking escapade.

One day her daughter tells her that she must see someone. She must talk to someone. She seems very anxious, so Ann makes an appointment with a doctor to get her daughter the help that she needs. After only one session, her daughter stops going, as she is not comfortable with some of the things that the doctor has said to her. All her daughter really wanted to do was confess to someone, what was going on with her father and her brother in the house. How when Ann would leave the house, her husband would have a drinking and smoking party and then as soon as they would hear her come home, they would split up and act like nothing was happening. It was killing her daughter to know that her brother was doing these things with his deadly form of asthma. She also was told by her father, that if she ever told her mother what they were doing, he would never have anything to do with her again. She felt unloved to begin with because she felt as though her father didn’t want her; he just wanted a boy and he got a son.

This is a story that relates to a lot of people’s lives. Some come forward with their terrible ordeals and some are too afraid. I don’t want to give too much of the story away, as it is a truly heroic, yet sad story. I feel as though Ann Meyer pours her heart out in this, but she was also teaching us that it is better to say something before its too late. Ann felt as though she was losing her family, especially her children and so she decided it was time to do something, anything. She explains what can happen when any kinds of drugs are used or smoked in a home.  She talks about physical and mental abuse and how it all may relate to drugs. She writes how unfair law enforcement can be at a time when we really need to count on them. She tells us how the system doesn’t really work when people need help, but instead they sometimes try to ruin our lives. If you like self-help books, this book by Ann Meyer would be a great one to read. It might help someone else who is struggling with the same issues or maybe worse issues than Ann and her family. She is heroic, strong-willed and a very special person. I commend her on how she handled situations thrown at her. I am glad she has found that safe place. I was honored to read her story in “The Sky Has Fallen.”

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