RAMBLER: A FAMILY PUSHES THROUGH THE FOG OF MENTAL ILLNESS

RAMBLER: A FAMILY PUSHES THROUGH THE FOG OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Linda K. Schmitmeyer’s memoir, “Rambler: A Family Pushes Through the Fog of MentalIllness,” is an intimate and forthright look at her experience of raising children with ahusband who has a severe mental illness.

Linda’s professional life has taken her from the classroom to the newsroom to a public relations office. Semi-retired now, she continues to work as a freelance writer and editor and adjunct university professor. The career constant—the thread running through it all—is her love for writing.

She fondly recalls the first time she imagined herself a writer. In grade school at the time, she overheard an aunt praising a story she’d written about growing up in a large family. (She has 10 brothers and a sister.) But being a writer wasn’t something little girls living in the Midwest in the 1950s set out to be, so she became a teacher. Eventually she morphed into a writer. When not writing—or thinking about writing—she enjoys traveling and bicycling, with her husband, Steve. They have three adult children.