Julie Howard Parker and her husband, Peter. [Courtesy photo]
Julie Howard Parker, affiliated with the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the Association for Psychosynthesis, and her husband Peter Parker will present their memoir, “Journey Beyond Despair,” at Callisto Tea House, located at 1359 N. Altadena Drive in Pasadena.
The event on Thursday, Nov. 7, from 4 to 6 p.m., reflects their 12-year writing journey.
The Middlebury College alumni, who have lived in Altadena since 1966 and supported local desegregation efforts, split their lives between Vermont as stewardship foresters and California.
“In our college class of 395 graduating from Middlebury College, three quarters of them are dead. And of the quarter remaining, most of them are widows or widowers or taking care of a partner in assisted living. So here we are, a rare couple,” Julie Howard Parker said.
Their story began when Julie Parker experienced a catastrophic psychosis at age 29 after the birth of their third daughter, followed by two major relapses over four decades.
“Psychosis is life-threatening,” she said. “It throws you into an altered reality right away. Your mind and your emotions are not functioning like a normal person, and you are experiencing something which is not ordinary reality.”
She married her ideal, Julie Parker said, but being an escapist, there was a part of her that feared her ideal.
“In order to be my ideal, which was to be a grounded, dependable person, reliable, predictable, there when you needed them, these were all the things that my husband was that I was not,” she reflected. “When you reach the point of despair, this is the message I want to get across. You are very, very close to a tremendous illumination or true, a tremendous awakening.”
At age 80, Julie gained a new perspective: “When I became 80, I realized that I am no longer this Julie that went through all of this. That was kind of an archetype, and it represents all human beings.”
Their perspective reframes mental illness as what Julie Parker calls a “mythic heroic journey” rather than simply an obstacle to overcome.
“Try to frame mental illness as a heroic journey,” she advises. “Try to see each terrible upset you have that takes you back to your therapist and everything after you thought things were going well as a step forward… there is something pulling us forward that is really cheering for us to reach the next stage.”
At the event, limited to 40 guests, Julie Howard Parker will offer chapbooks for a small donation to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
“Journey Beyond Despair” is scheduled for release in February 2025.
Please RSVP to: (626) 345-5615 or julieparkerbonjour@gmail.com.
