Finding Mother's Voice

My mother had a lyrical, lilting voice. She wrote with vibrant and vivid descriptions. Here is what she wrote on a card she left in my dorm room the day I left for college: “Each now is an experience, illusive to the next moment. Every day has its particular fragrance and the treasure box, somewhere inside, can be opened anytime, unleashing that bouquet we choose to inhale: our own remembrances—unique and beautiful gifts.” My mother lost her voice to cancer of the larynx, taking her beautiful voice away. She died several years later. "Finding Mother’s Voice" is the story of helping Mother find her voice through cancer, alcoholism, divorce, healing, and death ---- in my words and in hers, too. I have used her letters and journal entries to help tell the story of our lives, from laugh-out loud moments to more poignant ones through bits of Mother’s own writing via journals, notes, letters, cards or spoken words.