![\"Chilliwack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/42613711_web1_PhillippaMann_HouseOfCards2.0604.jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\nChilliwack author releases memoir about surviving mother\u2019s \u2018web of lies\u2019<\/p>\n
Published 9:30 am Sunday, June 21, 2026<\/p>\n
A Chilliwack woman is sharing her story about surviving her mother\u2019s web of lies in her newly released book.<\/p>\n
Phillippa Mann\u2019s memoir House of Cards was released in February and she\u2019ll be having a book signing on June 27.<\/p>\n
She grew up in a home where everything appeared perfect on the surface while something much darker was happening behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
Her mother has \u201cundiagnosed munchausen by proxy,\u201d she said, which is a mental illness where a caregiver (often a mother) fakes or exaggerates physical or psychological symptoms in their own child in order to gain attention or sympathy for themself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just though I was sick my whole life,\u201d Mann said.<\/p>\n
She called her mother a \u201cpathological liar.\u201d<\/p>\n
From stories about Mann having breathing and medical issues as a child, to her mother having cancer, to her dad having a twin brother, everything was lie, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believed all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mann was even admitted to a psych ward twice as a child.<\/p>\n
When Mann was in her early 20s, she found out her father didn\u2019t have a twin brother. She approached her mom who admitted that was a lie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018Is there anything else that you\u2019ve lied to me about?\u2019 And she said \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Mann was very vulnerable at the time. She had been out of a mental institution for about three years, and had a six-month-old baby. Her mother was a \u201cgreat nanny\u201d to her son, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed her, and she was my mom, so I believed her.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As the years went on, she found herself telling stories throughout her life and then she\u2019d pause wondering if any of it was true.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had lapse in memory. There\u2019s so many things I just don\u2019t remember,\u201d Mann said. \u201cI really needed to find out the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a five-year gap in her life that she had questions about, so in January of 2025 when Mann was 50 years old, she went to her mother for answers.<\/p>\n
She got no response. It was the last time they spoke.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Mann requested her own medical records from Surrey Memorial Hospital and BC Children\u2019s Hospital, including documents from when she was admitted to the psych ward twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when all the pieces started to really fall into place,\u201d she said. \u201c[It was] the most devastating moment of my entire life. It was like someone just pulled the rug out from underneath me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of her healing process using \u201ctimeline therapy,\u201d Mann had already started writing about her childhood \u2013 with no firm plans to even write a book \u2013 when she approached her mom in January of 2025.<\/p>\n
Her counsellor suggested she turn it into a book, saying it could help people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to heal and I wanted people to know I was ashamed of my life. I was so embarrassed. I didn\u2019t tell anybody I was in the psych ward.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I knew that my mom had a mental illness, I was always very close with her. I was the only person in my family that didn\u2019t walk away from her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her story in House of Cards is told decade by decade, instead of in chapters, starting when she was a young child, then a teenager, then into her adult years.<\/p>\n
She said writing the book has been a positive healing process for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s freed me from the embarrassment of my life. It\u2019s freed me from the hold that she\u2019s had on me literally until I was 50. I didn\u2019t even realize how much control she had over me until I started writing the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
What she wants people to learn from this book is that they are not alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to realize that mental illness has so many different faces, especially munchausen by proxy,\u201d Mann said. \u201cPeople are so much more resilient and stronger than they actually think they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s already had positive feedback on her memoir.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just needed one person\u2026 I didn\u2019t need it to be millions\u2026 just needed one person that said \u2018Wow. That story really touched my heart.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what she was told by one reader.<\/p>\n
People can meet Phillippa Mann during her book signing on Saturday, June 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Book Man. House of Cards: Surviving Munchausen by Proxy and a Mother\u2019s Web of Lies is $25 and she accepts cash, debit and credit card.<\/p>\n
For more, go to phillippamannauthor.com.<\/p>\n
Jenna Hauck is a journalist with The Chilliwack Progress<\/a>. Email her at jenna.hauck@theprogress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chilliwack author releases memoir about surviving mother\u2019s \u2018web of lies\u2019 Published 9:30 am Sunday, June 21, 2026 A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[903,49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-752031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}