Jo Maeder

An interesting account of Jo Maeder's decision to care for her aging (and ultimately dying) mother. She relocates from New York to North Carolina and changes her life in every way possible in order to take care of Mama Jo. What she discovers is that she gets as much from her mother as she gives. She is given the rare chance to get to know a person only a moment before it is too late.

The book was an easy read, with some laughter to lighten the inevitable sadness. It made me so glad that I always KNEW my own mother so intimately and that I did not have to wonder who she was at the end of her life. I miss mine every day, so this intimate tale did seem to be about what really matters in life to me.… (mehr)

As many of our generation find that we are parenting the very people we were raised by, this story offers a look at what reconciliation can give back to us. Becoming her mother's caregiver seems to have made whole the family Maeder lost in the years spent accomplishing her career. And in the telling, she creates a new vision for herself as an author. At first, it seems that their lives might be polar opposites: Jo Maeder had made a name for herself in radio in the Northeast, but her elderly mother was losing her faculties down South in the Bible Belt. Jo Maeder writes in a very comfortable manner, revealing the wry sense of humor that also made her a well-liked radio DJ. When I read this book, I had very recently lost my own mother, and more than once found tears streaming down my face, remembering my own struggles with elder care and the feeling that I was alone. If anything, this book proves that we are all in it together.… (mehr)