Darkness Surrounded Me

Darkness Surrounded Me: Surviving My Father¿s Suicide is a memoir that has taken Minnesota author Leif Olav Johnson more than 30 years to pen. Leif was 15 years old in 1980, busy obsessing about his high school tennis career, when he was suddenly confronted with one of life¿s harshest realities and deepest forms of loss. Unable to reconcile how his beloved and devoted dad¿James, ¿Big Jim¿¿could be brought down by the farm crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Leif struggled to move...
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Darkness Surrounded Me: Surviving My Father¿s Suicide is a memoir that has taken Minnesota author Leif Olav Johnson more than 30 years to pen. Leif was 15 years old in 1980, busy obsessing about his high school tennis career, when he was suddenly confronted with one of life¿s harshest realities and deepest forms of loss. Unable to reconcile how his beloved and devoted dad¿James, ¿Big Jim¿¿could be brought down by the farm crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Leif struggled to move forward in his own life. His Norwegian-American roots and culture gave him strong values, but also made it difficult to ask for help or share his pain with others. This is the story of how one man waded through a cloud of devastating grief and finally found a way to let go of his childhood dreams for the future and claim a life of his own¿without leaving his father behind.