The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family and Flowers

The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family and Flowers by Marcia Gay Harden       Audio Book: 8 hours, 34 minutes      Hardback Book: 336 pages       

Bittersweet book written by actress, Marcia Gay Harden about her life  from growing up at home with her parents and siblings, later going into her mother’s bout with dementia and the toll it is taking on both of them.    She speaks so lovingly about her mother, she jokes about her father’s default word that he emphasized nearly every sentence with and certainly every conversation with several times.   Funny at times but always told with just a bit of melancholy.  From their early life living in Yokohama, Japan while her Dad who was a Naval Officer was stationed there during the Viet Nam War and the family went with him.    Her Mother left alone with the 5 Harden children looked for outlets for her creative streak and settled on Ikebana or the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging and became so proficient at it she gave lectures on it and taught classes.   Just before the Alzheimer’s kicked in, Marcia’s mother, Beverly had been planning on doing a cable tv show with Marcia on gardening and flower arranging she named, “Down the Garden Path.”   The two women were excited about the project then that hateful memory dissolving thing came to be and took the present memories away left no concept of future only stray memories from the past that could be brought out bringing smiles and nods even though Beverly no longer knows who Marcia is.   A journey through 2 gifted people’s lives told with joy, regret, sometimes with anger but always with love about a very present and all consuming beast that threatens all of us but the lucky few.   May medical science find a way to stop this disease from taking over the minds and lives of the elderly and even some not so elderly.   This book will bring tears to the eyes, there is such a deep longing to embrace what was and bring it back but Alzheimer’s is not forgiving and will not release those caught in its clutches.   Marcia Gay Harden says, “I just want my Mom back.”   How gut-wrenching that someone can be so lost in their mind, yet, be right in front of you.   It rips your heart out to know this person you love and would do anything for is asking for your help as they realize they are losing control of their faculties and it kills both you and them to know there is nothing you can do about it.    Like watching a drowning victim go down for the third time, yet, you are too far away and cannot free them nor help them return to shore.   My heart goes out to her and her mother.