My mother passed away last fall, just short of her 91st birthday. Ten years prior, when she was in her early 80’s, she wrote about her childhood. About five years after that, in her mid-80’s, she moved to an Assisted Living Facility and wrote some more – this time about what it was like to be living in a place where she felt like a prisoner much of the time, and she was wondering how to keep joy in her life.
A few months before she passed away, I pulled both works out of my file cabinet, and talked with her about publishing her memoirs. She was very excited about that, and I spent a good part of the last two months of her life reading her what she originally wrote about her childhood. Although she couldn’t remember much of it, she thoroughly enjoyed listening to it and was amazed that she had actually written it.
After she passed, I combined her writing into one book and self-published it. The book paints a picture of life during the Depression years, and is a window through which we can view her struggle for identity during a time in our history where women were treated like second class citizens in many ways. For instance, her family did not want her to go to college, but she desperately wanted to go and her mother championed her cause so that she could get that education.
If “ghostwriting” means writing for someone after they have passed away, then I would say that I was a ghostwriter for this book; however in truth 98% of this book is in my mom’s own words and in her voice. She was a superlative writer, and I like to think that at least some of her talent has been passed down to me. My contribution to this book was organizing and editing it, which is what I love to do with writing. While working on this, I reconnected with that part of myself that really loves to communicate through writing.
In addition to being very therapeutic for me in going through the process of grief, publishing this book gave me the confidence to know that I can do this kind of work for others. I know that my mom would be very proud to have her book available for others to read!
