John Thorndike was born in England in about 1605. His parents were Francis Thorndike and Alice Coleman. He was one of the first settlers of Agawam, Massachusetts in 1633. He married Elizabeth Stratton in 1637 and they had five daughters and one son. Their son, Paul (1643-1698), married Mary Patch in 1668 in Beverly, Massachusetts. They had seven children. Descendants and relatives lived mainly in Massachusetts, Maine, New York and Illinois.

Soon after the birth of their son, Janir, John Thorndike's wife began a terrifying and dangerous drift into schizophrenia. Realizing that the only way to protect Janir was to take him away from his mother, Thorndike found his way through the pratfalls of child rearing alone. All who have experienced the wrench of mental illness in the family will recognize their own journey in Thorndike's heartfelt and heroic story of fatherhood.