Laura Trujillo: Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal
7PM (10 ET) WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
REGISTRATION REQUIRED. You can support Changing Hands by purchasing the book via Eventbrite below, or by contributing what you can. A limited number of pay-what-you can tickets are available while supplies last. A suggested contribution of $5 or $10—whatever you can afford—will help keep our virtual event series sustainable and accessible to all. Thank you!
Laura Trujillo discusses her new memoir, Stepping Back from the Ledge, in which one woman confronts her family’s secrets in the aftermath of her mother’s suicide, asking a seemingly impossible question: How do you mourn a loved one as you repair the injuries they inflicted?
Ticket includes an autographed copy of Stepping Back from the Ledge. For in-person attendees, books will be available for pickup on the night of the event. Books will be shipped to virtual attendees after the event.
Please note: A portion of ticket sales will benefit Hospice of the Valley.
ABOUT THE LIVE EVENT
- We're limiting attendance to allow for social distancing, so registration via Eventbrite is required for admission.
- Masks are required.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Laura Trujillo had been close to her mother for most of her adult life, raising her four children within a few miles of their beloved grandmother’s Phoenix home. But just three months after moving her young family to Cincinnati for a new job, Laura receives shocking news: Her mother had taken her own life—by jumping off a ledge into the Grand Canyon, a place Laura knew her mother had always loved.
Laura and her mother had shared a profound and special bond, yet each had also kept from the other the deepest truths about their lives. As an adult, Laura finally broke her silence about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a teenager at the hands of her stepfather—a secret Laura had buried to protect her mother. After her mother’s death, Laura embarks on an emotional odyssey, searching for clues that could explain the depression, intergenerational trauma, and shared heartbreaks in her family. When she returns to the Grand Canyon, it becomes an oasis that nurtures Laura’s search for redemption and peace. As Laura wrestles with her feelings, she forges a new path forward.
Moving and intimate, powerfully told, Stepping Back from the Ledge is a remarkable exploration of the bond between a mother and daughter, and of the hope that can come from facing the truth.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Trujillo is the managing editor for Life and Entertainment at USA Today and a former reporter and editor for The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Arizona Republic, and The Oregonian. She does advocacy work on behalf of suicide awareness. She lives with her family in Ohio.