Realization that the events, episodes, and occurrences set down are recollections of true activities caused the work to be all the more difficult to read.  

The chronicle begins during the 1983, Chicago’s South side Irish Parade.  Recently divorced Pat Carroll was twenty-seven and childless.  Gorgeous, lively, twenty-year-old Jeannine McGraw lied about her age, told everyone she was twenty-one, and she just took Carroll’s breath away.  

After a short time the pair were married, producing a family and gave the impression of an everyday, content family. 

 By 2004 the marriage was dissolved, Jeannine commenced a downhill slide focused around her yearning for ‘happiness’.  Jeannine was certain that the one to bring her happiness would be a younger man; the handy man hired to modernize a bathroom, and rather commenced wooing the lady of the house.

Jeannine began alternating between acting out her infuriation toward Carroll, disregarding her children and swooning in front of both with the andyman.  He was her adored and they had plans.  Those plans ended when the handy man committed suicide or was perhaps murdered by a fellow he had befriended.

Soon Jeannine turned her attentions elsewhere, divorce was filed, the three oldest Carroll children rebuffed living with their mother, and chose to live with their father, while, the three younger girls chose to live with their mother.

 Carroll felt helplessness as he observed the termination of life status quo his children faced, and found himself repetitively thwarted by Jeannine and the Indiana court system.  

His agreeing to joint custody of his children as he parted from his wife in 2004, Carroll never predicted that his 10-year-old daughter Shannon would be very near death a short two years later. 

As the shock of the situations were revealed, with repeated denials to the actuality of the circumstances tendered by both his daughter and her mother; it finally became apparent that Shannon had developed rabies due to being bitten by a bat.  Sadly, in October 2006 Shannon Carroll became the first person to die of rabies in Indiana since 1959 and was the only US citizen to die from rabies that year.  

Jeannine’s family members, the neighbors, many who knew the family tried to reason with Jeannine who only became irritated, vindictive and more fixated in her inexplicable behaviors. 

It was only after one of the neighbor’s telephoned Carroll to relate information the bite and the bat that doctors were put on the track concerning what was actually going on with the child.  

Apprehensive concerning the welfare of his three youngest children, in addition to having the sanction of Jeannine’s family, one of whom is co-author of this book, Carroll instigated an all-out fight for guardianship of the girls.  The battle moved slowly, and included grueling battling against a welfare and court system having a propensity to view mothers with more consideration.   

Rabies Mom is a grim read at best. 

Writer Carroll does not offer himself as the faultless one as opposed to the inadequacies of Jeannine.  He talks spontaneously about his own deficiencies, and, while he does present Jeannine as less than perfect; the fact that Jeannine’s family sided with Carroll as did neighbors and others, is telling. 

The sluggishness of the legal system, the concept that mothers are more likely the best parent for little kids, the dearth of expertise portrayed regarding his first lawyer, the powerlessness Carroll felt, all rang through the words he set down in his book. 

Patrick Carroll says any money he earns from sales of the book will go to guarantee his children have the funds to seek counseling as they try to pick up the pieces their lives. I hope his sales are huge. 

While too late to save Shannon, in January 2008, Carroll at last was given guardianship of his remaining two youngest children.  Today Carroll and his adult children remain good friends, he and his two youngest children live quietly in Illinois.  

Writer Jack McGowan is Jeannine’s oldest brother and has been a steadfast devotee of Writer Carroll throughout the horror of the marriage and subsequent aftermath of Pat Carroll and Jeannine McGraw.  

A must read for those who may be facing any of the situation as was faced by Patrick Carroll; including a marriage that is doomed and cannot flourish, children who are being mistreated, in concert with a legal system that at times seems to be teetering on unrealistic idiocy regarding children and their care givers.  

Rabies Mom is recommended for those who are in a doomed situation esp when children are included, counseling, counselors, and those whose marriage/divorce is not devolving into custody battles and the neglect of children. 

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Reviewed by Molly’s Reviews molly   martin

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Amazon  Product Details

Rabies Mom

 (Paperback)

by Jack McGowan (Author),

 Patrick Carroll (Author)

Product Details

Paperback: 208 pages

Genre memoir

Publisher: Arbor Books; 1st edition

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0980110602

ISBN-13: 978-0980110609

Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches

Amazon