Title: Hartland to Capitol Hill
Description: "The daughter of Danish immigrants, Mary Gunderson tells the heartrending tale of settling in rural Minnesota just before the Great Depression. She describes her checkered career as a country school teacher in the 1940s, which ends in a crushing nervous breakdown. She goes on to marry a farmer and raises eleven children, two of whom succumb to mental illness and suicide. Mary's recovery from this tragedy begins when she volunteers to start a chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in her hometown, becoming a personal and political advocate for others suffering from mental illness. After disclosing her experience of mental illness and the family tragedy at a national forum, Mary was invited to Washington to tell her story to congressional delegates on Capitol Hill"--
Subjects: Mental illness, Biography, Mentally ill, Family relationships, Suicide, Parent and child
Places: Minnesota