Gone is shadows' child

by Jessie Gray Foy

A young boy with a tortured psyche. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0912106085
• ISBN13: 9780912106083
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Logos International
• Length: 159 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

From the Shadows to the Light - Borne on Eagle's Wings

When Billy Foy Jr. was born in February of 1954, he was not like most babies. He startled at touch and sound and had the most unpredictable reactions to things. At 2 he had a meltdown when he saw a mechanical puppet in a grocery store; at 3 his speech became fragmented and he began "losing" words he had once used with proficiency. By age 5 after two disastrous years in nursery school, Billy was seeing a therapist. He would see this therapist for several years. School was hit or miss for Billy. With help and encouragement at home, he was able to complete his assignments. When left to his own, he floundered and his thinking became radically disoriented and fragmented. Luckily, he had one good friend, a boy named Tommy who defended him and stuck by his side. Sadly, his other friend, a kind boy named Chris moved out of state during that time. The Foys were good parents to their only child. They took Billy to California the summer of 1965; they bought a boat and exposed him to as many different people and scenarios as possible. While Billy did not appear to have hallucinations, his thinking was grossly disordered. During the summers of 1965 and 1966 he attended a YMCA camp at his own request, only to return both times full of anger at why he was allowed to go. He often expresed a fear of becoming like Hitler and destroying the world if he was not helped. He would launch into a litany of his personal problems whenever he encountered people socially. A simple "how are you" could segue for Billy into the deepest parts of his tortured psyche. After an unsuccessful stab at 4th grade, Billy was placed in a special education class. His teacher was described as singularly inept by permitting another child to hound and harass Billy into a frenzy. The rationale for this was to force Billy to defend himself, which never happened. The Foys met with the principal and the school board, only to be dismissed. Desperate, they pulled Billy from school in late 1965 and began homeschooling him. He returned to the special class one year later only to be tormented by the same bully. Again he was homeschooled with a tutor and just barely scraped through the 1966-67 year. By the spring of 1967, the Foys were desperate. After an unsuccessful attempt to find a residential placement for Billy, the Foys were back at Square One. In May of 1967, a chance conversation with a friend who had seen a program about how megavitamin treatment helped people with schizophrenia set Jessie Foy on a mission. Locating a Dr. Allan Cott, who was known as a vitamin dispenser for a generation of autistic and psychotic children, the Foys read up on Billy's condition and spoke with the doctor about the health properties in vitamins. According to Dr. Cott, people with schizophrenia lack an enzyme in the brain and the vitamins "replace" or supplement the deficient mental areas. Many feel that Dr. Cott saw vitamins as a panacea to all mental illnesses. The validity of t