Depression and the Family

This free program will provide attendees with a window into the family’s experience of severe depression by featuring Paula Butturini, author of Keeping the Feast: One Couple’s Story of Love, Food and Healing. It is the true story of her husband John’s history with treatment-resistant depression, the effect on her and their children, and the hard-earned lessons she learned from the experience. These lessons will be meaningful to all of us. 

The love of Italian cooking and eating with family and friends are woven throughout the book and plays a role in the couple’s journey to healing. Although books will be sold at the program, attendees are encouraged to read the book prior to the program and/or look at her website www.paulabutturini.com , to enrich the experience of hearing Paula in person. 

Comments from book reviews of Keeping the Feast:

"Written with grace and courage, Paula Butturini's Keeping the Feast is about the endurance of love in the face of overwhelming odds--depression, tragedy, loss. But it is also about the comfort to be found in the dailiness of life, when every humble act becomes an act of faith; when the preparation and sharing of three good meals a day, however simple, is both a reminder and a celebration--an insistence on celebration--of what life offers. Keeping the Feast is a triumph of will and spirit. It made me hungry for everything."  - Abigail Thomas, author of A Three Dog Life 

"Keeping the Feast is a remarkable story, gorgeously told. We reflect, relish, grieve, and heal our way with Paula Butturini, who is wise about so many things-family and place; depression, religion, and love; the disastrous long-term fallout of a single bullet fired at a loved one; and the immediate restorative pleasures of a single Italian meal. This book evokes life at its most serious and dire, and at its most mysterious and delectable. Read it, and be deepened and refreshed."  - Krista Tippett, host of the public radio program Speaking of Faith