Showing results by author "Emma M Churchman" in All Categories

Emma Churchman's extraordinary memoir follows her search for identity as the eldest child of a woman with one of the most extreme cases of multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder) diagnosed in the 1980s. Never knowing which of her mother's alters would emerge—the playful child, the raging demon, or the suicidal depressive—Emma became the family's anchor in an ocean of psychological chaos, raising her three younger brothers while navigating a mother who had no clear identity.

Imagine being cut off from the world, perched atop a mountain turned into a deadly flood zone by Hurricane Helene's fury. For Emma Churchman and her husband Jeff, this nightmare became reality in September 2024. For three harrowing days, their loved ones had no idea if they were alive. But surviving was just the beginning. When they finally fought their way down three miles of treacherous terrain, they found their small mountain community of Gerton, NC transformed. Without power, phones, or internet, their neighborhood teetered between chaos and unity.