The Seasons of My Mother
The Seasons of My Mother

Author: Marcia Gay Harden

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-05-01

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1501135724

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this lyrical and deeply moving memoir, one of America’s most revered actresses weaves stories of her adventures and travels with her mother, while reflecting on the beautiful spirit that persists even in the face of her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. Marcia Gay Harden knew at a young age that her life would be anything but ordinary. One of five lively children born to two Texas natives—Beverly, a proper Dallas lady, and Thad, a young naval officer—she always had a knack for storytelling, role-playing, and adventure. As a military family, the Hardens moved often, and their travels eventually took them to Yokohama, off the coast of Japan, during the Vietnam War era. It was here that Beverly, amid the many challenges of raising her family abroad, found her own self-expression in ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging. Using the philosophy of ikebana as her starting point, Marcia Gay Harden intertwines the seasons of her mother’s life with her own journey from precocious young girl to budding artist in New York City to Academy Award-winning actress. With a razor-sharp wit, as well as the kind of emotional honesty that has made her performances resonate with audiences worldwide, Marcia captures the joys and losses of life even as her precious mother gracefully strives to maintain her identity while coming to grips with Alzheimer’s disease. Powerful and incredibly stirring, The Seasons of My Mother illustrates the unforgettable vulnerability and beauty of motherhood, as Marcia does what Beverly can no longer do: she remembers.

A Mother for All Seasons
A Mother for All Seasons

Author: Debbie Phelps

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-03-30

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0061899119

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The unsinkable Debbie Phelps—who captured the hearts of the world when her son, Michael, triumphed at the Beijing Olympic games—shares her inspirational story A Mother for All Seasons is the heartfelt, intimate memoir of an everywoman—a single mom and an educator who raised three exceptional children, including the greatest Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps. During the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, when Michael achieved the impossible with his record-shattering eight gold-medal wins, Debbie Phelps nearly stole the show. For the millions who were riveted to the most watched Olympics in history, few could forget the homage that Michael consistently paid to the one person on Team Phelps most responsible for making it all possible: his mom. Nor can we forget how after each medal ceremony, Michael walked proudly to the stands to reach up to his mother and his sisters, Hilary and Whitney, to deliver his winning bouquets to them. While those highlights will forever be remembered the world over, very few know the behind-the-scenes stories as lived by the members of Team Phelps—a roller-coaster ride full of dramatic ups and downs, heartbreaks, and disappointments, yet one guided to triumph by vision, courage, and tenacity. Now at last, in A Mother for All Seasons, we're given the untold story as lived by the mom on the team. An educator in home economics, motivational spokeswoman, visionary middle-school principal, mother of three, and grandmother of two, Debbie Phelps is also the eternal cheerleader who was raised in a small, blue-collar, working-class town. An avid believer that achievement is limitless for each and every child, no matter the odds, Debbie reveals the universal themes of her story, which is rich with struggle, humor, hope, advice, and passion. Infused with the indomitable spirit of “America's mom,” as she has been called, A Mother for All Seasons rallies us to cheer for all of our children at every stage of their growth and in every endeavor. Candid, lively, and charming, it offers timely, commonsense wisdom, lessons, and insights, and provides a much-needed reminder that life doesn't always turn out how you plan it, but in fact it can sometimes turn out even better.

My Mother was Nuts
My Mother was Nuts

Author: Penny Marshall

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0547892624

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From her humble roots in the Bronx to Laverne and Shirley and her unlikely ascent in Hollywood, the beloved actor and director tells the story of her incredible life.

Conversations with My Mother
Conversations with My Mother

Author: Ronni Lundy

Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9781600590887

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

When you were a kid, what were some of the things you dreamed of being when you grew up? What's something you wish you had asked your parents, but never did? These and other thoughtful questions will get Mom talking. One thing's for sure: Doing the interview will help make wonderful new memories, along with a volume that will be prized for generations to come.

Through the Seasons
Through the Seasons

Author: Cynthia R. Green

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 2020-03-10

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1421436469

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A collection of easy-to-follow activities, organized by seasons of the year, to help family members and caregivers engage with memory-challenged adults. Dementia and related disorders impact the lives of those affected in countless ways, making it difficult to remain independent at work, at home, and in the wider world. But recent studies have shown that structured activities can make a significant, positive difference by stimulating mental engagement while improving interactions between caregivers and memory-challenged adults. Fun and easy to use, this large-format, full-color picture book is divided into themes representing the four seasons. Each section describes several multisensory experiences—such as walking on the beach, making ice cream, or planting flowers—along with related topics for discussion and activities to elicit memories and encourage new positive associations. The topics and activities incorporate all five senses to facilitate connections and conversations. The book adopts a compassionate, person-centered approach and is designed so that two people can easily look together while sitting side by side. This latest edition, which has been thoroughly revised, • takes a multicultural approach • includes all-new images, as well as 14 completely new highlighted activities • integrates modern wellness concepts • features a new introduction and an updated resource section • offers guidance about activity planning and optimizing interactions between care partners and the individual with dementia Helping you and your loved one make cherished new memories, Through the Seasons is an indispensable solution to the question of what to do together to maintain well-being and connection.

Moon, Have You Met My Mother?
Moon, Have You Met My Mother?

Author: Karla Kuskin

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2003-03-01

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9780060271749

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A collection of poems deals with such topics as pets, bugs, seasons, food, and senses.

Season's of a Mother's Heart
Season's of a Mother's Heart

Author: Sally Clarkson

Publisher:

Published: 2022-04-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781888692334

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)Your life as a mom is a whirlwind of changing seasons that can leave you exhilarated one day and exhausted the next. Take time to catch your breath with Sally Clarkson as she shares personal stories and heartfelt insights to refresh your spirit. She opens her own seasoned heart as a homeschooling wife and mother to be a voice of heartfelt encouragement for your life at home. Step out of the whirlwind, pour a cup of tea, and take a deep breath of God's Spirit with Sally."God will use all your seasons to shape and challenge your heart, to prepare you to be a mother after his heart, and to equip you to raise wholehearted children for Christ who will follow him, and then do the same for their own children. It is your calling." -- Sally Clarkson

My Mother's Ghost
My Mother's Ghost

Author: Fergus M. Bordewich

Publisher: Doubleday Books

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A luminous memoir of how the author's involvement in his mother's accidental death reshaped the emotional landscape of his childhood and adult life. In 1962, at the age of fourteen, Fergus Bordewich's life was shattered as his mother attempted to jump off a runaway horse and fell calamitously under the galloping hooves of the horse Fergus was riding. Crouching beside her in a gathering pool of blood, he convinced himself that she would be fine. But an hour later, in the hospital waiting room, he and his father listened in shock as the doctor told them that she had been dead on arrival. At that moment, he thought to himself, I've killed my mother. So begins My Mother's Ghost, veteran reporter Fergus Bordewich's anguished attempt to come to terms with the emotional chaos his life was thrown into with his mother's death. For all practical purposes, Fergus's childhood was over. His mother, a fierce, fireball of a woman, had been the dominant figure not just in his family, but, as the executive director of the Association on American Indian Affairs, a galvanizing force in national politics behind Native American activism and tribal rights. She was a woman who traveled the country meeting with tribal chiefs and regularly dined with senators and congressmen. And Fergus had been the son she doted on. In the aftermath of her death, his father slipped further into alcoholism and silence. In the decade that followed, Fergus would follow his father into a life of despair and drink. By the age of twenty-seven, he was close to suicide. A devastating and beautifully written account of Bordewich's attempt to make peace with his mother's death and rediscover her place in his heart, MyMother's Ghost is a poignant and heartrending memoir that, like Angela's Ashes, is neither easily put down nor readily forgotten.

The Autobiography of My Mother
The Autobiography of My Mother

Author: Jamaica Kincaid

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 1996-01-15

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 1466828846

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the recipient of the 2010 Clifton Fadiman Medal, an unforgettable novel of one woman's courageous coming-of-age Jamaica Kincaid's The Autobiography of My Mother is a story of love, fear, loss, and the forging of a character, an account of one woman's inexorable evolution evoked in startling and magical poetry. Powerful, disturbing, stirring, Jamaica Kincaid's novel is the deeply charged story of a woman's life on the island of Dominica. Xuela Claudette Richardson, daughter of a Carib mother and a half-Scottish, half-African father, loses her mother to death the moment she is born and must find her way on her own. Kincaid takes us from Xuela's childhood in a home where she could hear the song of the sea to the tin-roofed room where she lives as a schoolgirl in the house of Jack Labatte, who becomes her first lover. Xuela develops a passion for the stevedore Roland, who steals bolts of Irish linen for her from the ships he unloads, but she eventually marries an English doctor, Philip Bailey. Xuela's is an intensely physical world, redolent of overripe fruit, gentian violet, sulfur, and rain on the road, and it seethes with her sorrow, her deep sympathy for those who share her history, her fear of her father, her desperate loneliness. But underlying all is "the black room of the world" that is Xuela's barrenness and motherlessness.

Late Migrations
Late Migrations

Author: Margaret Renkl

Publisher: Milkweed Editions

Published: 2019-07-09

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1571319875

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the New York Times columnist, a portrait of a family and the cycles of joy and grief that mark the natural world: “Has the makings of an American classic.” —Ann Patchett Growing up in Alabama, Margaret Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver. And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.” Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut. “Magnificent . . . Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)