Everything Changes for a Teenage Girl when her Mother Dies
Sensitive and shy, Susan spent her childhood relying on her mother’s love and guidance. But when she was twelve years old, her life was broken apart in a way that would change her forever. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and two years later, she left an empty seat at the table, and an empty place in her family that nothing else could fill.
The family began to change. Susan’s relationships with her siblings and her father unraveled and knitted back together in an unfamiliar shape. She navigated her adolescence profoundly alone without her mother’s wisdom and comfort…but the ache of that lost love remained with her.
Susan searched for answers. She wanted to hear someone say, “I know what you mean. I felt that way too, when my mother died.” She never heard those words. But now, the feelings she kept buried for so long have found a voice in this soul-searching book.
Read Reviews
5 stars – life is a story – Ahhmericanwoman
This is a beautiful memoir. It brings back a lot of memories from growing up. Although the experiences in the book are specific to the author, I think they are, to a certain extent, universal. Things about what it’s like growing up and finding your place in your family, relationships with your parents, making friends and fitting in, finding first love, and striking out on your own. Dealing with loss.
In this memoir, the author grew up on a farm, the third of four children, growing up in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. She lost her mother to cancer when she was 14, and has painful memories of that time – how it changed her family and especially her dad.
While each person’s experience is unique, many persons suffer the loss of a close person while still young. In my case, my “father” walked out on our family, when I was three, never to be seen again. I know the long term effects that has had on me.
The book is at times almost poetic in prose, a timeless kind of beauty in the way the words blend together. Between each chapter, there are color drawings of a different kind of flower, and a few lines about how that particular flower was special to her mother, and a special lesson she learned from her mother based on the meaning behind that flower.
This is a special book. It is loving, and at times filled with much personal pain. I feel enriched for having read it.
5 stars – elegant and honest, a beautiful memoir – Nova Fornell
As I read Susan’s beautifully written memoir on the pain of losing her mother at a young age I was instantly pulled into her story; vividly seeing the situation through her eyes. I found the way in which Susan was forced to grow up so quickly and without the support from her mother heartbreaking, though the memories Susan shares with us of her time spent with her mother gave me feelings of sweet, innocent hope from the perfect, loving bond that they shared. Her writing is honest and elegant, and her words truly touched my heart. I would highly recommend The Strongest Bond to to anyone who has ever lost a loved one, as well as to those looking for a beautiful read about the strong and everlasting connection between a loving mother and her child.