For eight and a half years, Rikki Jo Neyer watched her mother vanish into an illness that defied diagnosis. She wore sunglasses indoors because light became unbearable. She retreated into what Neyer describes as unrecognized catatonia. Her family searched for answers while the woman they loved slipped further into darkness. Now, Neyer is sharing that journey in her debut book, Do You Believe in Miracles? Our Journey Out of Darkness and Into the Light.
The book, published by Lucid Books, is not a typical inspirational memoir. It forces readers to live through the years of decline before revealing the recovery. Neyer explains, “Most miracle stories begin with the miracle and work backward. This one makes you live through every year of the darkness before you get there.” That darkness ended when her mother received Ativan and woke from the catatonic state. Her mother later said, “I did die. And God brought me back.”
Why does this story matter? It highlights the silent crisis of misdiagnosis and the isolation of caregiving. Neyer became her mother's voice when her mother could not advocate for herself. She navigated medical uncertainty, exhaustion, and fear—a reality for countless caregivers. The book includes four interviews with key witnesses, a scientific summary of catatonia, Scripture, and appendices for caregivers and those struggling to keep going. These resources give particular weight to Neyer's firsthand experience as her mother's primary advocate.
Neyer admits writing was painful. “This book required me to go back into rooms I had worked very hard to leave,” she says. “The dark years, the doubt, the moments when my faith was barely a thread.” She resisted sanitizing those memories. “The reader who is sitting in their own dark room right now does not need a polished version of suffering. They need the truth.”
The implications of this announcement extend beyond one family's story. It challenges a medical system that often overlooks rare presentations of catatonia. It offers language for caregivers who feel invisible. And it asks the question in the title: Do you believe in miracles? Neyer does. “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.”
Perhaps most importantly, the book is published while Neyer and her mother can share the story together. Her mother is alive, participated in the book, and after years that seemed stolen, mother and daughter are making up for lost time. Neyer describes the writing journey as “Witness. Endure. Return.” She witnessed her mother's suffering, endured putting it on the page, and returned to hope and a tested faith. For families facing unexplained symptoms or a diagnosis that does not account for what they see, this book offers courage to keep asking questions.
