Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2022-03

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9781735072722

Still Stepping: A Family Portrait is a twenty-two year, long-form portrait of a family as it cruises along, gets clobbered by a treacherous childhood illness, and then moves forward. Amidst the quotidian of life, my photographs and the family's words-from letters, an essay, a documentary and interviews-provide an intimate window into a world turned upside down then righted by two shaken but determined parents.The book follows the family as it figures out how to care for a severely disabled child, and rights itself to the new reality by the will and persistence (and humor) of the four family members.The narrative is presented in two parts. The first begins with the untroubled days of early childhood. It follows the Morgan-Orton family as they seek a diagnosis for nine-year-old Parker's increasingly disturbing behavior and learn the worst of news-that it is Childhood Onset Schizophrenia (COS). It continues with the period of adaptation and moving forward; shaken but determined, the family finds a new rhythm. The second part, the Postscript, presents the children in their twenties with all four offering unvarnished reflections on their lives and concerns for the future.