Rikki Jo Neyer has released her debut book, Do You Believe in Miracles? Our Journey Out of Darkness and Into the Light, which recounts her mother's eight-and-a-half-year struggle with a mysterious illness that left her catatonic, and her subsequent recovery after treatment with Ativan. The book, published by Lucid Books, aims to provide hope and practical resources for caregivers and families navigating similar medical odysseys.
For nearly a decade, Neyer watched her mother gradually withdraw into what she describes as an unrecognized catatonic state. Her mother could not tolerate light, often wearing sunglasses indoors, and her family searched fruitlessly for answers. "I did not set out to become an author," Neyer says. "I set out to survive a season that felt impossible. For eight and a half years I watched my mother disappear into an illness no doctor could name, and I realized that if I did not write it down, the world might never know what she went through."
The book does not shy away from the darkness. Neyer deliberately structures the narrative to make readers experience the years of decline before revealing the turning point. "Most miracle stories begin with the miracle and work backward," she explains. "This one makes you live through every year of the darkness before you get there." The moment of change came when her mother received Ativan and awoke from the catatonic state. Her mother later summarized the experience: "I did die. And God brought me back."
Neyer's account combines personal testimony with broader resources. The book includes four interviews with key witnesses, a scientific summary of catatonia, Scripture, and appendices tailored for caregivers, those struggling to keep going, and supporters. This blend distinguishes it from traditional inspirational memoirs. "The reader who is sitting in their own dark room right now does not need a polished version of suffering," Neyer says. "They need the truth."
The importance of this story extends beyond one family's experience. It highlights the challenges faced by caregivers who must advocate for loved ones when the medical system offers few answers. Neyer hopes the book will resonate with others in similar situations. "I hope caregivers feel seen in a way that nothing else has made them feel seen," she says. "I hope anyone who has ever loved someone through a darkness that has no name finds language for what they have been carrying." She also encourages those facing misdiagnosis or disbelief to persist: "I hope anyone sitting with a misdiagnosis or fighting to be believed by a medical system that keeps looking away finds courage in these pages to keep asking questions."
At its core, the book poses the question in its title. Neyer's answer is unequivocal. "And I hope every reader who has ever wondered whether God still finds people in the darkest places finds their answer here," she says. "He does. I am living proof. My mother is living proof." Her mother is alive, participated in the book, and the two are now making up for lost time.
Neyer's journey also transformed her understanding of suffering and faith. She came to see beauty and suffering as companions rather than opposites, and hope as present even when circumstances seem hopeless. She describes the writing process as "Witness. Endure. Return." "I witnessed what happened to my mother and to our family," she explains. "I endured the process of putting it on the page and going back into rooms I had worked very hard to leave. And through the writing, I returned to myself. I returned to hope. I returned to a version of faith that had been tested in every possible way and was still standing."
Lucid Books, an independent hybrid publisher in the Houston area, released the book. As a partnership publisher, Lucid Books offers the connections and expertise of a traditional publisher with the author involvement of a self-publisher. For more information, visit lucidbookspublishing.com.
