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Three Reasons You Should Read This Contemporary Literary Fiction:
- My Mother’s Gift by Steffanie Edward is the story of a family growing old together and apart – of generational changes and taking care of the ones you love.
- Erica’s story is slowly told – her past, her present, her plans for the future – as she confronts the challenge of helping her mother, Ione, live with advanced Alzheimer’s Disease.
- ione is very family-orented – and even on her worse days, you can still see this in her, and she wants nothing more than to live her last days among them.
About My Mother’s Gift by Steffanie Edward
Title: My Mother’s Gift
Author: Steffanie Edward
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
What if going home was the only way to find out where you belonged?
When Erica gets a phone call to say her mother, Ione, is ill in St Lucia, she knows she must go to her, even though their relationship has always been difficult. The island – the place of her mother’s birth – is somewhere that Erica has never called home.
Even when the plane touches down in the tropical paradise, with its palm trees swaying in the island breeze, the sound of accents so like her mother’s own calling loud in the air, Erica doesn’t find herself wanting to stay a moment longer than she has to.
But stepping into her mother’s house, she is shocked by what she finds. Her mother’s memory is fading and she is having strange, erratic episodes. Erica knows the right thing to do is to stay with her, even if it means leaving everything in England behind.
Could you uproot your whole life for the person who raised you? Can a place you’ve never felt at home ever feel like where you belong? And – as you experience loss – is it ever possible to also find love and peace?
My review of My Mother’s Gift:
My Mother’s Gift by Steffanie Edward is the story of a family finding a new way, a family coming together and drifting apart, of past arguments and joys forgotten. And while there are some very sad and heart-breaking scenes, the story overall feels more like a love story between a mother and daughter.
Erica returns to St Lucia to visit her mom every year, but this year it’s a lot different. Ione’s Alzheimer’s has progressed quickly, and she doesn’t even seem to be the same person most of the time. There are wonderfully sweet moments for mother and daughter to share that quickly deteriorate into manic episodes of violence and rage. Author Steffanie Edward did an amazing job showing how this disease can tear families apart. She artfully showed the real trauma experienced by both Erica and Ione.
The family that lives in St Lucia didn’t always agree with Erica’s decisions, and sometimes I didn’t either. But they all shared one common goal – doing what was best for Ione. Did they make the right decision in the long run? Maybe. It’s hard to say, and the book makes sure that this is very clear. You never know what the best choice at the end will be, you can only choose what your heart is leading you to.
There’s life outside of being a carer for Alzheimer’s too, and this was something Erica had to learn, and her family helped her learn it. Being able to lean on and depend the people around her was such a blessing.
There were a couple of inconsistencies that jumped out at me. For example, a time when she drank wine at night, then complained about being tired after her third rum and coke from the night before. But they were pretty minor. There’s life outside of Alzheimer’s too, and this was something Erica had to learn, and her family helped her learn it.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
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