Kim Hopkins is a semi-retired BSN, RN having worked for 40 years as a bedside ICU and ED nurse. Aside from dealing with mental illness in a wide variety of hospital patients, her oldest son was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of twenty-four. During her career as an RN, she kept an accredited CCRN (Certified Critical Care nurse for for 35 years; maintained ceritifcations for TNCC,(Trauma Nursing Core Corse) ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) and ENPC (Emergency Nurse Pediatrics Course).  She has two previously unpublished books written prior to her son’s brain surgery, that may be edited and re-written, and several magazine articles. She lives in northwest Missouri with her dog and four cats. Writing has always been the first love of her life.