Linda Joy Myers

Don't Call Me Mother (eBook, ePUB)

A Daughter's Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

"I wanted to tell the secret stories that my great-grandmother Blanche whispered to me on summer nights in a featherbed in Iowa. I was eight and she was eighty . . ." At the age of four, a little girl stands on a cold, windy railroad platform in Wichita, Kansas, watching a train take her mother away. For the rest of her life, her mother will be an only occasionaland always troubledvisitor who denies her the love she longs for. Linda Joy Myers's compassionate, gripping, and soul-searching memoir tells the story of three generations of daughters who, though determined to be different from their absent mothers, ultimately follow in their footsteps, recreating a pattern that they yearn to break. Accompany Linda as she uncovers family secrets, seeks solace in music, and begins her healing journeyultimately transcending the prison of her childhood and finding forgiveness for her family and herself. This edition includes a new afterword in which Myers confronts her family's legacy and comes full circle with her daughter and grandchildren, seeding a new path for them.

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Dieser Download kann aus rechtlichen Gründen nur mit Rechnungsadresse in A, B, BG, CY, CZ, D, DK, EW, E, FIN, F, GR, HR, H, I, LT, L, LR, M, NL, PL, P, R, S, SLO, SK ausgeliefert werden.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Simon + Schuster LLC
• Seitenzahl: 380
• Erscheinungstermin: 13. Februar 2013
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781938314087
• Artikelnr.: 41345691

Autorenporträt

Linda Joy Myers has always been deliciously haunted by the power of the past to affect people in the stream of time. She has integrated her passion for history and her own struggles with intergenerational trauma into her work as a therapist and writer. The power of the truth to educate current generations about the past led Linda Joy to explore the little-known history of WWII in the weeks following the fall of France-which in turn led her to write The Forger of Marseille. She is the author of two memoirs, Don't Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains, and four books on memoir writing. She's also the founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers. You can learn more about Linda Joy's work at www.namw.org and www.lindajoymyersauthor.com. She lives in Berkeley, CA.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v
Tracks to My Heart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .1
There Be Dragons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Enid and Aunt Helen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 25
Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Liebestraum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Daddy Is Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Liberace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Plains Is Our Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 55
The Mississippi Valley Cradle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 57
Blanche and the Garden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 61
Ghosts of the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Grandpa, the Prayer Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 75
Spare the Rod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Lemon Meringue Pie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 83
Mother's Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 85
Birthplace in Wapello . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 93
The Music Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 97
Finding Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 103
Who Do You Want More? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 109
Hate Letters and Harrison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 115
Sex and Beethoven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 123
The Facts of Life and Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 129
The Wedding Dress and Gram's Secrets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 133
Looking for Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 137
Saved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Happy Twelfth Birthday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 147
Welcome as a Snake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 151
Thirteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Swan Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Wasteland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
God's in His Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 173
Sweet Sixteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 179
You Can Wish Upon a Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 183
Wheat Fields on a June Evening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 189
Who Am I? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 201
Alma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
I Have Been Waiting and Hoping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 211
Endings and Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 219
Leaving at Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Don't Call Me Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 229
Becoming a Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 235
Return of the Bad Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 241
Legacies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Gram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Beside the Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 263
Amanda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Etchings of the Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 271
For the Grace of Dan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 279
The California Zephyr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 283
Don't Call Me Grandmother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 285
Lost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
I'm Not Your Daughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 293
Motherless Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 295
Don't Tell Them You're My Daughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 301
The Diagnosis: Manic Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 307
Requiem for a Ghost Mother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 315
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 359
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 361