On Her Own Terms

Internationally acclaimed author Carolyn Gammon conjures a kind and unflinching portrait of her mother's dementia-ultimately revealing the love, joy and life which remain even as memory and past fade. Learning to speak in maybes-perhaps I told you? Were you there? and to let a mother direct memory as memory vanishes, Gammon threads a path through time, bringing us into the heart and heat of a mother-daughter relationship that is changing as each day passes. That one day, may not offer "the pleasure of a daughter's company, but only that of a warm hand." Each poem reveals the intimacy of this mother-daughter relationship, thrusting the reader into their dialogue and communication. At the end of each poem is a quote from Gammon's mother, often eerily insightful, reflecting her own youthful ambition to write: "I am still clinging to the vine" and "I find forgetting easy." Kind, often funny, and always honest, this collection is for anyone who has loved someone who is beginning to forget, has forgotten, but will not be forgotten. These words offer an archive, a testament to the memory that lives in books- and a reminder that memory loss is not an insurmountable barrier to living a good life.