Tales of the Dragonfly

REVISED AND UPDATED-March 2010As an introducton to her "Tales of the Dragonfly" novels, the author discusses her attempts to find meaning and self worth in her life, while she has no choice but to be home full-time to care for her severely autistic, mentally impaired, and diabetic son, due to the lack of vocational programming available to him because of the Illinois budgetary crisis. Illinois now ranks as one of the top three worst off states because of their over $13 billion budget deficit, and ranks 49 out of 50 states in their care and service to the disabled. She discusses the reality of the state actually being able to service the individuals on the PUNS waiting list, which has not been updated since spring of 2009, when, even then, over 11,000 individuals were in need of services. The author talks of her early rewarding collegiate years followed by years of disappointment due to her several bad choices, which include problems with alcohol, then marriage to a jealous and abusive first husband. As a single parent of two young boys, she struggles on as a successful sales representative, then remarries and shortly afterward is forced to deal with her autistic son's behavior problems, after he develops diabetes. Eventually, even more tragic consequences develop after her second husband is arrested.