. . . (my grandfather) said his father had died during the war. When he said it, he suddenly got this look in his eyes. Like he wanted something he could never get. I sensed something painful inside of him. Vulnerable and broken. Instinctively, I wanted to reach out to him. But I had no concept of the depth of the ocean he was swimming in . . . And so, the moment passed. And then he was smiling again. Back on point.
For a long time after that, I felt like a window had opened in that moment-a window through which terrible secrets could be seen. If only I had the courage to look and the wisdom to understand them. Clues that could unlock a mystery that throbbed in our familial blood and infiltrated our dreams.
Joey Ter-Mitchell spent his early years caught up in vicious cycles of bad influence, including crime, drugs, abuse, and psychological damage. Unsurprisingly, his life went on to become laden with addictions, recovery, and relapses as well as physical abuse, toxic relationships, car wrecks, arrests, jail, probation, and other painful realities-including "dying" at least once. He spent years riding a roller coaster of shame, chaos, and pain.
But, thankfully, this isn't where Joey's story ends.
In The Wealthy Loser, Joey describes how he was spared from ultimate destruction by the grace of God, and how he was led to uncover a family mystery at the core of the madness that ruled his life.
While searching for healing and answers, Joey takes a journey into the past, where he discovers secrets that he comes to understand were the catalysts for a multi-generational tragedy.
Beautifully weaving two stories, The Wealthy Loser is a poignant memoir about survival, redemption, healing, and most of all, love.
Ter-Mitchell, Joey: - As a child, Joey Ter-Mitchell instinctively knew he would write a book one day. Then thirty-five years later, his intuition began coming to life, bringing his powerful story to light-no small feat for someone who didn't read a book himself until he was thirty-nine.
Joey enjoys his ongoing and ever-growing relationship with God, a connection that became clear when he was in recovery and locked up in custody. He developed a program that he calls UniverCcity which he intuitively created in order to heal himself after failing to do so as he found himself caught in and out of the revolving doors of rehab and jail over 25 years of his recovery. Joey took everything that worked for him from two failing systems and implemented his own program which allowed him to stay clean and sober since July 1st, 2017. Since then, he has focused on his cosmic redo, which he refers to as die bakwaard, where he is attempting to correct the wrongs he was taught. His goal is to fully heal himself first, hoping he can lead by example in order to save lives from getting lost in addiction, and live a life worth living with love and integrity.
He lives on Vancouver Island, in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, with his dog Violet Trotchki and close to his son and his son's mother.
