Terry: My Daughter's Life and Death Struggle with Alcoholism » (Reprint)

It was just before Christmas 1994 that Senator George McGovern received the terrible news that his forty-five-year-old daughter, Terry, had been found dead in a parking lot near her Madison, Wisconsin, home. In an alcoholic stupor, Terry had stumbled out of a bar and into a snowbank, where she fell asleep and froze to death. In this extraordinary remembrance, Senator McGovern attempts to come to grips with the circumstances of his child's demise as well as her troubled life. Alcohol and depression were always twin curses for Terry. Though she maintained a facade of well-being, especially while working on her famous father's political campaigns, she was desperately trying to conquer her addictions. For long stretches of her adult life, despite her efforts to stay sober, she was shuttled in and out of detox centers and institutions. Throughout McGovern's remarkable career in Washington and after his retirement from the Senate, Terry's illness shadowed her parents' every activity. Could they save her without destroying themselves? Were McGovern's political ambitions a factor in Terry's despair? Could Terry's two young daughters - the Senator's grandchildren - remain with their mother? Terry's struggle, and the McGovern family's efforts to save her and learn from her illness, are the heartbreaking themes of this painful and unforgettable book. With courage and compassion, George McGovern addresses a private tragedy with an intimacy and honesty rarely achieved by a public figure. Terry is a book that has forever changed McGovern's life and will undoubtedly alter America's view of alcoholism.