Daughter's Memoir Recounts Mother's Miraculous Recovery from Catatonia

For eight and a half years, Rikki Jo Neyer watched her mother vanish into an illness that no doctor could name. Her mother wore sunglasses indoors not as a fashion statement, but because light had become unbearable. Eventually, her mother fell into a catatonic state that went unrecognized. Now, Neyer is sharing that harrowing journey and the remarkable recovery that followed in her debut book, Do You Believe in Miracles? Our Journey Out of Darkness and Into the Light. The book, published by Lucid Books, chronicles the family's desperate search for answers, the toll of caregiving, and the moment her mother received Ativan and woke from catatonia. Her mother later said, 'I did die. And God brought me back.'

Neyer, who served as her mother's primary advocate, emphasizes that the book does not sanitize the years of darkness. 'Most miracle stories begin with the miracle and work backward,' she says. 'This one makes you live through every year of the darkness before you get there.' The memoir combines faith, medical questions, and firsthand testimony, and includes four interviews with key witnesses, a scientific summary of catatonia, Scripture, and appendices for caregivers and those struggling to keep going. Neyer hopes the book will help others feel seen. 'I hope caregivers feel seen in a way that nothing else has made them feel seen,' she says. 'I hope anyone who has ever loved someone through a darkness that has no name finds language for what they have been carrying.'

Neyer's journey also transformed her understanding of beauty and suffering. She describes the writing process as 'Witness. Endure. Return.' Most importantly, the book is being published while her mother is alive and able to share the story. For more information on Lucid Books, visit lucidbookspublishing.com.