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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson
I am so glad this was recommended to me by @lifebehindthewords for my 12 books from friends challenge. I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise, just because it wasn’t on my radar.
I really enjoyed it. It’s a memoir with flashbacks through Plum’s life. But mostly it’s about the loss of her mom, and how, while tasked with packing up her family home, she processes the grief of losing parents. This really was a moving book full of love and laughter. Highly recommend it.
I am glad I listened to this one as it wasn’t exactly a page turner, but the audio kept me engaged. Memoirs are just better as audiobooks, they are never my go to genre but I always enjoy them as I listen.
I am so glad this was recommended to me by @lifebehindthewords for my 12 books from friends challenge. I don’t think I would have picked it up otherwise, just because it wasn’t on my radar.
I really enjoyed it. It’s a memoir with flashbacks through Plum’s life. But mostly it’s about the loss of her mom, and how, while tasked with packing up her family home, she processes the grief of losing parents. This really was a moving book full of love and laughter. Highly recommend it.
I am glad I listened to this one as it wasn’t exactly a page turner, but the audio kept me engaged. Memoirs are just better as audiobooks, they are never my go to genre but I always enjoy them as I listen.
I listened to the audiobook. This was a great memoir.
This was an unexpected 5-star read for me. I received this in a box of books that had made its rounds through several states, each friend along the way putting in a few biographies/memoirs and taking out a few. As I went through the box last week, this one stood out to me and I set it aside to begin that night. I am SO glad I did---it really spoke to me.
My own mother's mother died at the very young (and getting younger all the time) age of 49. I was 7 years old and my mother was 30. I had no perspective at the time but, now looking back, I can't imagine how lost my mother must have felt losing her own so very young. It's heartbreaking, really. My mom didn't get a chance to go through her mother's things after she passed away and there probably wasn't a whole lot to disperse anyway. Grandma lived with us the last few months of her life and I'm sure mom held on to most everything she'd brought into our home during that time---at least for awhile.
Losing my mother will probably be different. I think about it sometimes---going through her stuff, I mean. I imagine her husband, dazed and crazy in his chair, watching nonsense on TV while I am locked in their bedroom crying and boxing up every. single. thing. to go through back at home by myself. Or maybe her husband has passed on first and it's just me. I imagine then that I'd lock myself inside and hermit for a few weeks as I slowly come to grips with all the beauty I want to remember and all the regrets I want to forget. Writing this out makes me feel like I'm suffocating.
Once a few years ago, my mom posted an article on Facebook about how my generation doesn't want to be left with all their parents' stuff. It said it would be better for retired/elderly parents to disperse their things early and donate the rest so it will just be a quick and easy wrap up for this generation of too-busy adult children. I was horrified. No. I want to be able to go through her things. I need that closure and that coming-to-grips. It is my right and a step of mourning that I don't want to be denied.
I was fascinated that Plum's mom had enough written correspondence, diaries, and more to fill up a room on her third floor. I wish my mom and I had more letters. We have years of daily Facebook messages---but that's not the same. I've decided I'll start copying them and printing them out, though. It's something. I do have several years of letters from my teenage years when we lived apart---but we were different people then. I don't want my grandchildren to have a skewed view of what our relationship was like. As Plum says, "What's going to happen to all our histories if computers crash? What happens when software formats change? Storing things is one thing. Retrieving them is a whole other matter...With computers, the more we think we have preserved, the more we may have lost." I don't know if the older generation realizes this. The written word on good old fashioned paper is still the most important form of communication in letters.
This book sparked so many thoughts and emotions in me. I feel like writing it all out would lessen the effect for the next reader. There's a lot I want my mom to get out of this book and I'm curious what her thoughts will be as she didn't have this experience with her mother. (Though I've heard some horror stories about my great-grandmother Annabelle...ha!) I'll be passing it along to her this week.
My own mother's mother died at the very young (and getting younger all the time) age of 49. I was 7 years old and my mother was 30. I had no perspective at the time but, now looking back, I can't imagine how lost my mother must have felt losing her own so very young. It's heartbreaking, really. My mom didn't get a chance to go through her mother's things after she passed away and there probably wasn't a whole lot to disperse anyway. Grandma lived with us the last few months of her life and I'm sure mom held on to most everything she'd brought into our home during that time---at least for awhile.
Losing my mother will probably be different. I think about it sometimes---going through her stuff, I mean. I imagine her husband, dazed and crazy in his chair, watching nonsense on TV while I am locked in their bedroom crying and boxing up every. single. thing. to go through back at home by myself. Or maybe her husband has passed on first and it's just me. I imagine then that I'd lock myself inside and hermit for a few weeks as I slowly come to grips with all the beauty I want to remember and all the regrets I want to forget. Writing this out makes me feel like I'm suffocating.
Once a few years ago, my mom posted an article on Facebook about how my generation doesn't want to be left with all their parents' stuff. It said it would be better for retired/elderly parents to disperse their things early and donate the rest so it will just be a quick and easy wrap up for this generation of too-busy adult children. I was horrified. No. I want to be able to go through her things. I need that closure and that coming-to-grips. It is my right and a step of mourning that I don't want to be denied.
I was fascinated that Plum's mom had enough written correspondence, diaries, and more to fill up a room on her third floor. I wish my mom and I had more letters. We have years of daily Facebook messages---but that's not the same. I've decided I'll start copying them and printing them out, though. It's something. I do have several years of letters from my teenage years when we lived apart---but we were different people then. I don't want my grandchildren to have a skewed view of what our relationship was like. As Plum says, "What's going to happen to all our histories if computers crash? What happens when software formats change? Storing things is one thing. Retrieving them is a whole other matter...With computers, the more we think we have preserved, the more we may have lost." I don't know if the older generation realizes this. The written word on good old fashioned paper is still the most important form of communication in letters.
This book sparked so many thoughts and emotions in me. I feel like writing it all out would lessen the effect for the next reader. There's a lot I want my mom to get out of this book and I'm curious what her thoughts will be as she didn't have this experience with her mother. (Though I've heard some horror stories about my great-grandmother Annabelle...ha!) I'll be passing it along to her this week.
Enjoyed this read immensely, could not put it down, definitely will go down the road to see if the house is still there. Feel as if i got to know the family so intimately.
Loved everything about this book. Such a richly layered story, and so beautifully told. The house was by far my favourite character - what a magical Goliath of a place!
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
This book is a memoir about the author's grieving process after a long period of care-giving for her mother followed by her death. I found the first part interesting, and could relate to many of the details of having to clear out personal possessions full of memories and love. The descriptions of family dynamics were also sympathetic and well-written. But the latter half of the book was bogged down in the historical details of the author's family, which didn't really interest me. Overall, I would recommend it for anyone who is going through a grieving process for their parents, and their family roots in general.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I read this as part of my book club.
It was an interesting memoir dealing with what to do with your parents stuff when they pass.
Plum is the oldest child and she volunteers to stay in the family home to sort out items. Her brothers live scattered across the continent.
I found the book interesting as it’s set close to where I live and I gobbled up every lake reference and Oakville reference however,
Most of the writing rambled quite a bit. I was never sure where the author was going or what point she was trying to make.
I found the most interesting part of the story was at the end when she read the letters she found between her mother and father. It was a fascinating bit of real history mixed with family history.
But the premise is one that we all have to think about, what to do with the stuff when our parents pass on.
It gives you food for thought.
It was an interesting memoir dealing with what to do with your parents stuff when they pass.
Plum is the oldest child and she volunteers to stay in the family home to sort out items. Her brothers live scattered across the continent.
I found the book interesting as it’s set close to where I live and I gobbled up every lake reference and Oakville reference however,
Most of the writing rambled quite a bit. I was never sure where the author was going or what point she was trying to make.
I found the most interesting part of the story was at the end when she read the letters she found between her mother and father. It was a fascinating bit of real history mixed with family history.
But the premise is one that we all have to think about, what to do with the stuff when our parents pass on.
It gives you food for thought.