Title: Military Mom on a Mission: An Advocate for Mental Health
Author: Million Heir-Williams
Publisher: Effectual Life Coaching Enterprises
ISBN: 978-1962569569
Pages: 124
Genre: Memoir / Mental Health
Reviewed by: Susan Brown
Pacific Book Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Barbara Kingsolver said, “Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws.” This profile by the author of her son, an Iraqi war veteran, chronicles her efforts to ensure his mental and emotional health before, during and after his service to his country.
Ms. Heir-Williams single-minded focus to assure her son’s well-being exemplifies Kingsolver’s perspective on motherhood. The author’s strength of commitment to her son, whom she calls Champion, moved mountains, metaphorically, resulting in accessing the help her son needed to lead a successful civilian life. Her mantra throughout the book is, “You must always have a voice for your loved ones when they are unable to represent themselves.”
Embedded throughout the author’s narrative are two themes: her deep and unyielding devotion to her son guided by her wholehearted faith in God and His will. She is not just fighting for her son’s mind, compromised by PTSD, but his soul. She writes, “Now, I tell everyone war changes the inside of a person’s soul.”
The enormity of the journey Ms. Heir-Williams embarks on brings her into contact with military personnel, police departments, psychiatrists, doctors, the Veterans Administration and her Congressman. Her detailing of these interactions is clear and concise, peppered with her frustrations with finding solutions to help her son, and those feelings put in perspective by the certainty in her faith and the hope it provides. Emails and letters to her son while he’s away from home are part of the narrative and highlight her state-of-mind.
This is a compelling story, told by an intelligent, educated and well-informed writer. She does her research, educates herself on the issues of PTSD and makes well-thought-out decisions to actuate solutions. She uses her own fact-finding to create materials designed to help others through situations like she encountered. The appendix includes templates of letters she composed, a glossary of Marine Corps terms, a resource directory of organizations that assist veterans and family members. There are thought-provoking and inspirational quotes and a series of Life Lessons jotted down at the end of a chapter.
There is a call to action in this book, for all of us and Ms. Heir-Williams states it beautifully. She writes, “As a free society we must create a safe place for our service members, and others, to be able to ask for help. The stigma attached to mental illness must be removed or we will continue to pay a heavy price — the lives of our loved ones.”
This imperative is vital and the author outlines not just how we can embrace it, but also why we must. But this memoir is so much more than that imperative, it is a beautiful story of a mother’s love for her Champion. Military Mom on a Mission by Million Heir-William, is a must-read.
