Saving Jessie

Nothing could prepare Imogen Clark for the shock of discovering that her daughter was a heroin addict.

"I discovered that my daughter was a heroin addict at 7.25 pm on Tuesday, February 13, 1996... I'm not very proud of the next couple of hours. I would like to be able to write that I gathered her in my arms, soothed her obvious misery, reassured her that I loved her... but I was enraged. How could she do this to me? What was wrong with her? My child was not supposed to be on heroin."

The youngest child in a tightly knit, loving family, Jessie was intelligent, beautiful and talented--she did not fit the stereotype of the unhappy child who turns to drugs to escape pain. This astonishingly candid, deeply moving and inspiring account of a mother's battle to find the strength to deal with her daughter's heroin addiction confronts the reality of every parent's nightmare.

It is the story of an ordinary family whose lives were changed forever by heroin addiction. It will offer comfort and hope to others facing the same battle-- and reassure them that they are not alone. Jassie and her family have won the battle--for now. But it is a story without an end: 'We will struggle day by day for a very long time before it might become part of our family history and someone will be able to mention almost in passing, "Do you remember when Jessie was using?" '