A Family In Crisis: A Time To Heal

My name is Alberta Sequeira, and I'm the author of A Healing Heart; A Spiritual Renewal,  Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round; An Alcoholic Family in Crisis and the sequel Please, God, Not Two; This Killer Called Alcoholism. I was born in 1941 in Pocasset, Massachusetts, which is located in the Cape Cod area.

I had no intentions of ever writing a book. It wasn't until my father, One Star Brigadier General, Albert L. Gramm of South Dennis, came down with cancer that I had realized that I had never taken the time to know him. He was born in Worcester, MA on March 27, 1910.

Albert L. Gramm had been one of the commanding officers of the 26th Yankee Division during WWII. He had fought in Europe fighting in the battles of Metz, Lorraine and the Battle of the Bulge, to name a few. God had brought him home safe and unharmed. I had allowed the history of a great man to disappear. He had more for me to explore than I had realized.

I traveled on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia to find peace and healing. I had spent a week in this little, remote village, and had witnessed visionaries having apparitions with Our Blessed Mother. From the many miracles that had happened in Medjugorje and after my return home, I finished A Healing Heart. My life changed forever from a spiritual renewal. 

Healing Heart is a book with many lessons on how we wait too long to learn about a loved one. This book is for people of all faith. Once it's read, the reader will come to see how and why to forgive, bring God back into our families and how we are allowing material things to become too important in our lives. Our children are straying in the wrong direction and their leaning on drugs, alcohol and violence. The reader will come to term with their own spirituality and find a change in their life.

On June 19, 2009, my second memoir titled Someone Stop This Merry-Go-Round; An Alcoholic Family in Crisis was self-published by Infinity Publishing. It's about my fourteen years married to Richard Lopes of North Dighton. We had two beautiful daughters, Debbie and Lori. The memoir starts with my teen years, meeting Richie, and our marriage. Slowly our family life started on a merry-go-round of confusion, fear, broken promises and drinking abuse. No one could stop the steps Richie was taking heading toward becoming an alcoholic. In 1985, at the age of forty-five, he died from this demon.

The sequel, Please God, Not Two; This Killer Called Alcoholism, was self-published by Infinity Publishing in August 2010. It's the continuation of our lives as we watched our daughter, Lori Cahill, going down the same path as her father. On November 22, 2006, Lori died from cirrhosis of the liver at the young age of thirty-nine.

In 1993, I remarried and now live in Rochester, MA with my husband, Al. We have five children; Deborah Dutra of Berkley, Lynne Poitras of E. Freetown, John Sequeira of New Bedford, Alan Sequeira of Westport and Carol Applebee of Maine. Our beloved daughter, Lori (Cahill) Nadeau died November 22, 2006 of Cirrhosis at an early age of thrity-nine. We are blessed with ten grandchildren; Michael & Kerri Dutra, Joe & Meagan Cahill, Andy & Kailey Poitras, Rosalie & Lillian Sequeira and Jordan & Julia Applebee.

I belong to the St. John Neumann Church in East Freetown and had been a Eucharistic Minister and Vice President of the St. John Neumann Couple's Club for two years.

My relaxation comes from reading when there is spare time, which is not too often, I enjoy gardening, when my energy and legs permits, social events, and my greatest joy is writing to touch the hearts of readers.

After retiring early, I devoted every spare moment to finishing my books. I had felt there was a beautiful human interest story to share after the loss of my father, a husband and my daughter.