My Love ly Wife, a Memoir of Madne ss and H op e revi ew - a refre sh in gly be autifu l triumph by Sara Torres
Lukach’s story about loving someone with a severe mental illness will tear you apart. But you will love every second of it, says Sara Torres. Mark and Giulia were the perfect couple. Together since university, they got married, moved together to San Francisco and got an English bulldog. The whole deal. Until one day Giulia told Mark she spoke to the Devil and he was coming to get her, so she might as well end it. She spent one month in a psych ward. That was the first of three mental breakdowns. After that, the couple’s lives turned into a courageous battle against mental illness that will probably go on forever. Mark Lukach doesn’t hold back. With his dazzling memoir, published in 2017 by Bluebird, he wants to paint a picture of how his life turned from a lovely one-way drive to a roller-coaster of dark, painful moments mixed glimpses of light, and he does so. Very successfully. While reading My Lovely Wife, a Memoir of Madness and Hope, fear started to creep in. I tweeted that this book was making me frightened of how fragile mental health can be.
Pictured: Giulia and Mark Lukach (from My Lovely Wife’s book cover)
Giulia, the lovely wife from this story, who is still battling against mental illness, replied to the tweet with ‘Don’t be scared. It’ll be okay.’ And truthfully, that that’s the message Lukach’s extraordinary story gives. A beautiful note on the fragility of the human mind, the power of love and the strength of the human spirit that will make you reflect on yourself, your sense of altruism and your humanity. He deserves all the praise for his courage and sincerity. My Lovely Wife offers not only a look at how mental illness can change a life but also incredible detail on how it affects those around it. It goes into the darkest corners of the human mind, only to offer hope and comfort. It isn’t just a story about the harshness of mental illness, it is a story about perseverance and loyalty. This breath-taking tale doesn’t just give a narration of Giulia’s unexpectedly long battle; it’s an unvarnished account of how hard it is to love someone with a mental illness and how lonely it can become. It raises the question of how we care for those we love and who are those we do live for.
Pictured: Giulia and Mark Lukach (from My Lovely Wife’s book cover)
My Lovely Wife, a Memoir of Madness and Hope is filled with sadness, despair and doubt. But mostly, it is filled with love.