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243 reviews for:
What to Do When I'm Gone: A Mother's Wisdom to Her Daughter
Hallie Bateman, Suzy Hopkins
4.17 AVERAGE
243 reviews for:
What to Do When I'm Gone: A Mother's Wisdom to Her Daughter
Hallie Bateman, Suzy Hopkins
4.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
QUOTES THAT I LIKE:
"My story could have ended in a million ways. It doesn’t matter which one. If you asked a bunch of dead people if they were happy with how they died, I’m guessing most would want to rewrite their endings, too. However it happened, dead is dead. Go to the movies and get some popcorn."
"Why go on if we all just die in the end? There’s a great reason. If you knew you were going to live forever, imagine how much time you’d waste. Amazing things can happen when there’s a deadline looming."
"Death is uncivil; thank-you notes are civil. Expressing gratitude forces you to focus on living people who care about you rather than on the enormity of your loss. It also forces you to leave the house and go to the post office, where you will have to practice something harder than gratitude: patience."
"At times you will forget that you are amazing, and I hate that I’m not there to remind you. Because someday you will be old, and you will look back at pictures of yourself and you will see . . . “I was beautiful.”
"If the best case is better than the worst case is worse, do it"
"If you’re upset with someone, it’s probably related to the fact that you love this person. Go to bed early and get a good night’s sleep. The next morning, pretend that a meteor is going to hit the earth in five minutes, wiping out your neighborhood. Would you be worried about who’s right and who’s wrong, or would you just want to give a hug and never let go? Problem solved."
"Better yet, read a great book. Let it transport you to another place and time, which—when you finally close your eyes— may help you appreciate where you are right now."
"Being in love is easy. Living together is harder. It’s a learning experience, mostly about yourself. At times you won’t like how you behave or how your partner behaves. You won’t always agree and the workload won’t always be evenly distributed. At times you’ll get angry and fight and have to work to reestablish communication. It sounds grim, but if you love your partner, it’s worth the effort."
"Our culture, our families need to talk much more about death. In the same way you greet a new life you ought to honor a departing life."
"I see happiness as contentment with what you’re doing right now. That may be nothing at all, or something ambitious, or something in between. It’s a sense of not wanting to be anywhere else."
"My story could have ended in a million ways. It doesn’t matter which one. If you asked a bunch of dead people if they were happy with how they died, I’m guessing most would want to rewrite their endings, too. However it happened, dead is dead. Go to the movies and get some popcorn."
"Why go on if we all just die in the end? There’s a great reason. If you knew you were going to live forever, imagine how much time you’d waste. Amazing things can happen when there’s a deadline looming."
"Death is uncivil; thank-you notes are civil. Expressing gratitude forces you to focus on living people who care about you rather than on the enormity of your loss. It also forces you to leave the house and go to the post office, where you will have to practice something harder than gratitude: patience."
"At times you will forget that you are amazing, and I hate that I’m not there to remind you. Because someday you will be old, and you will look back at pictures of yourself and you will see . . . “I was beautiful.”
"If the best case is better than the worst case is worse, do it"
"If you’re upset with someone, it’s probably related to the fact that you love this person. Go to bed early and get a good night’s sleep. The next morning, pretend that a meteor is going to hit the earth in five minutes, wiping out your neighborhood. Would you be worried about who’s right and who’s wrong, or would you just want to give a hug and never let go? Problem solved."
"Better yet, read a great book. Let it transport you to another place and time, which—when you finally close your eyes— may help you appreciate where you are right now."
"Being in love is easy. Living together is harder. It’s a learning experience, mostly about yourself. At times you won’t like how you behave or how your partner behaves. You won’t always agree and the workload won’t always be evenly distributed. At times you’ll get angry and fight and have to work to reestablish communication. It sounds grim, but if you love your partner, it’s worth the effort."
"Our culture, our families need to talk much more about death. In the same way you greet a new life you ought to honor a departing life."
"I see happiness as contentment with what you’re doing right now. That may be nothing at all, or something ambitious, or something in between. It’s a sense of not wanting to be anywhere else."
challenging
emotional
hopeful
sad
fast-paced
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
Short and sweet and depressing 🥲
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
While this is a relatively simple book, it’s very sweet and I did cry a few times. Like many others who wrote reviews, my mum has cancer and I have been forced to confront what my life would look like if I lost her. I don’t know how meaningful I would find this book after her passing, but right now, it made me feel like I would be able to cherish her memory and keep going. It definitely prompted me to think about all the things I’d like to ask my mum while I can.
There was also some genuinely good pragmatic advice, some of which I noted for future use.
I didn’t find the recipes particularly helpful – there were no quantities (though I did find that kind of endearing because I think that’s a classic mum move).
Sidenote: The illustrations looked lovely on my Kobo Clara Colour!
reflective
sad
fast-paced
It's good, some parts def made me cry and it makes me wanna do something similar with my mom to collect her stories and advice. It's hard to rate this bc i think it's incredibly personal and it a reflection and representation of these two women and their relationship, so it's hard to relate to it personally; I don't see myself or my mom in it but I don't think this is a bad thing, again, this is about these two women specifically and that's okay and that's good. I think it sparks an important conversation, and that's what I'll take away from it.
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Touching note from a mother to her daughter to comfort her when she passes someday.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Poignant, tender, and beautifully intentioned.