Hartland to Capitol Hill

"The daughter of Danish immigrants, Mary Gunderson tells the heartrending tale of settling in rural Minnesota just before the Great Depression. She describes her checkered career as a country school teacher in the 1940s, which ends in a crushing nervous breakdown. She goes on to marry a farmer and raises eleven children, two of whom succumb to mental illness and suicide. Mary's recovery from this tragedy begins when she volunteers to start a chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) in her hometown, becoming a personal and political advocate for others suffering from mental illness. After disclosing her experience of mental illness and the family tragedy at a national forum, Mary was invited to Washington to tell her story to congressional delegates on Capitol Hill"--