Book: They Left Us Everything
Author: Plum Johnson
Category: Biography
Recommended by: Kelly Fraser, Okotoks Public Library biography collection manager
Description: A warm, heartfelt story of family, loss and a house jam-packed with decades of goods and memories. After almost 20 years of caring for elderly parents, Johnson and her three younger brothers have finally fallen to their middle-aged knees with conflicted feelings of grief and relief. Now they must empty and sell the beloved family home, 23 rooms bulging with history, antiques and oxygen tanks. Items from childhood trigger difficult memories of Johnson’s eccentric family growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, but unearthing new facts about her parents helps her reconcile those relationships, with a more accepting perspective about who they were and what they valued.
“When we read biographies, there is a sense of knowing others have complex lives and thoughts just like us, and we may even resonate with another’s circumstances that are very close to our own, such as depression, addiction, grief, a challenging marriage, a joyful triumph or loving a relative with Alzheimers. We learn about other’s lives, their inner thoughts, solutions to problems, outlooks on life and we gain a sense of being in this human experience of struggles and joys together.” ~ Kelly Fraser
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