National Network for Equitable Library Service

Twenty-five years after her mother's brutal death made the headlines, Phyllis Dyson felt compelled to unearth the truth about her mother's illness. By chronicling the events of her childhood, uncovering family secrets and betrayals and gaining access to government documents, Dyson has captured the heart of her family's tragedy in a debut memoir. From a young age, Phyllis and her brother learned to rely on each other as they dealt with a missing mother, an absent father and a departed grandmother as well as being sent to live with their maternal uncle and his wife, despite their relatives' lack of interest in the responsibility of raising children. Although brother and sister were happy roaming the Cariboo backwoods surrounding their uncle's home, there was always darkness beneath the surface. When she reached the same age her mother was when she was killed during an altercation with a police officer, Dyson became determined to learn the truth about her mother's fate and the lack of protection extended to her and her brother as children, truths that only deepened her compassion for those struggling with mental illness and for the families that surround them. Among Silent Echoes is the tender and intimate story of the consequences faced when those who have been given a mandate to protect us do not, and the resilience of one woman who emerged whole from that traumatic world.