Your child's suicide feels like the biggest parental failure of all. Any parent wants to be prepared for the worst, but no one ever anticipates the horror actually happening until it is too late. In alternating chapters, this memoir chronicles Matt Byrne's youth and growth into an All-American boy, and subsequent fall from grace as PTSD from his dream job as FDNY firefighter spiraled him toward substance abuse and depression. A cautionary tale,
In Whom I Am Well Pleased
seeks to give families the heads up needed to avoid similar loss, or additional strength to survive it, if inevitable.