Seeing Eye Girl, Beverly J. Armento
Seeing Eye Girl, Beverly J. Armento
List: $13.99 | Sale: $9.80
Club: $6.99

Seeing Eye Girl
A Memoir of Madness, Resilience, and Hope

Author: Beverly J. Armento

Narrator: Lauren Ezzo

Unabridged: 8 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Books Fluent

Published: 08/30/2022


Synopsis

As the “Seeing Eye Girl” for her blind, artistic, and mentally ill mother, Beverly Armento was intimately connected with and responsible for her, even though her mother physically and emotionally abused her. She was Strong Beverly at school—excellent in academics and mentored by caring teachers—but at home she was Weak Beverly, cowed by her mother’s rage and delusions.
Beverly’s mother regained her sight with two corneal transplants in 1950 and went on to enjoy a moment of fame as an artist, but these positive turns did nothing to stop her disintegration into her delusional world of communists, radiation, and lurking Italians. To survive, Beverly had to be resilient and hopeful that better days could be ahead. But first, she had to confront essential ethical issues about her caregiving role in her family.
In this emotional memoir, Beverly shares the coping strategies she invented to get herself through the trials of her young life, and the ways in which school and church served as refuges over the course of her journey. Breaking the psychological chains that bound her to her mother would prove to be the most difficult challenge of her life—and, ultimately, the most liberating one.

Reviews

Such a heartbreaking book. I am impressed by the author, willing to share her story so openly, having to revisit all the horrible events of her past. It must have taken immense courage to do so; looking at pictures, talking with relatives and opening a box of memories. Strong Beverly truly showed he......more

Goodreads review by Angie

This story is a memoir written by a woman who was the eldest child of a mentally ill, blind woman. Beverly's mother was an aspiring artist who received corneal transplants to improve her vision twice, but with the fluctuation in her vision also came the fluctuation in her mental health and as a resu......more

Goodreads review by Janalyn

Being a blind mother with two daughters I was very interested in Beverly story, but after reading it I see there is no comparison. What Beverly went through was terrible and something no child should go through. From being woken up in the middle of the night scared of communist to the physical abuse......more

Adults who were wounded as children, as well as anybody in the education profession, will connect with Beverly’s journey on so many levels. Beverly Armento grew up during the 1940s / 1950s; the eldest of four children. She spent her childhood caring for her blind mother – a selfish, mentally ill an......more

A broken heart is a representation of the extremely profound pressure or torment one feels at encountering perfect and profound yearning. The idea is culturally diverse and frequently referred to regarding unreciprocated or lost love. The book which I will suggest to you folks today is an exceptional......more