Barbara grows up in a motherless home where she is abandoned, neglected and abused. She becomes a juvenile delinquent by the age of 11, a high-school dropout and mother at 17, and a twice divorced single mother of two sons by 27. Not knowing if she was smart or stupid, she started college at the age of 29, and after ten full-time years earned a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. Professional success followed, but personal success did not. She continued to struggle through multiple relationships while plagued with a bipolar depressive disorder and alcohol abuse. At age 70, she retired and moved to her beloved lake cottage in southeast Michigan. She is reasonably content but still searching.