Books
Seeing Joy, A Story of Life, Death, and What Comes Next
Now available from Koehler Books and online bookshops
Beatrice, one of America’s first career women, is still feisty at ninety-six. She lives with her daughter Alexandra, who has moved to Cape Cod to care for Bea while running a bed-and-breakfast out of their beloved old house. Like so many adult children caring for elderly parents, Alexandra must balance her new job as caregiver with her role as daughter—and it isn’t easy. Bea is demanding and very verbal. Her mind is like a fireworks display on a drizzly Fourth of July—some shots fizzle out, but there are still bits of brilliance. After a knee ailment confines Bea to bed, it becomes clear her life will soon end. Convinced nothing comes next, Bea declares she doesn’t want to die. When deceased friends and family start “visiting” Bea’s bedroom, Alexandra wonders if her mom is hallucinating. Or could these visits have deeper meaning? Bea entertains her “guests” by hosting tea parties and reliving treasured memories. She reveals an unexpected kind of joy to Alexandra—a joy that brings peace and chases away the fear of death as they experience their final days together.
Midwest Book Review
Seeing Joy: A Story of Life, Death, and What Comes Next is a daughter’s account of her mother’s end time, but it goes beyond the usual memoir about the rigors of coming death and the challenges of caregiving for an elderly parent, exploring further notions about death and afterlife.
As Alexandra cares for her ailing mother Bea, they enter a period of time in which Bea claims that deceased relatives and friends are visiting her. She holds tea parties in her room and entertains these “invisible people,” drawing her daughter into a series of encounters and conversations that unexpectedly enriches both their lives while providing much food for thought.
These encounters are detailed in a memoir of not just endings, but new beginnings. The challenges of trying to run a business and care for an adult are only part of this story, opening the saga with many routines and trying times that fellow caregivers will all too readily relate to:
Sleep through the night? Think again. Laughter soon rang out. I raised my head from the pillow and grimaced. According to my watch, it was one o’clock. Pitch black outside. Rain pouring down.
“We’ll meet up at Grand Central Station,” Bea told someone in a light-hearted manner. It took but a moment for her sparkling eyes to notice me at the bedroom door. “Oh, here you are,” she said with immense pleasure. “Care to join us for lunch?”
“Geez Louise! It’s the middle of the night,” I hissed. “Please go to sleep.”
At that precise moment, she seemed more like a performing monkey than a human being who required my attention.
As unacknowledged family ties and secrets emerge within the course of these months, Alexandra is confronted with new ideas about her past, present, and future which receive the overlay of Bea’s newfound encounters:
Was she interacting with the spirits of deceased friends or merely reliving memorable events from her past? One detail challenged the “merely memories” theory. If true, why exclude Nancy Macdonald, who had died in 1996? Nancy never appeared at any of the bedroom parties. Not once. And Nancy had been her best friend.
The explorations and discoveries that drive Seeing Joy offer many reflective insights about new opportunities, giving the memoir a rich embellishment not typically seen in caregiver accounts.
This is why libraries and readers will want to make Seeing Joynot only part of their reading and acquisition lists, but part of a book club or group discussion, whether it be about spirituality and afterlife, caregiving, or unexpected new connections formed only in end times:
“I will miss you so,” I whispered, soft and low. I stroked her hair, breathed in her musty scent with its hint of green apple. The last time the two of us shared such closeness was when I was the child, fifty-nine years ago.
The enlightening process of finding and seeing joy in these experiences proves as priceless to the author as it will be to those who read her book and follow in her footsteps.
D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
A bold debut collection of linked short stories that follow the lives of those displaced by the Bolshevik Revolution and their descendants, shining a light on the lasting impact of displacement and the resiliency of the human spirit. Available for pre-order from Academic Studies Press (Choose Imprints, then Cherry Orchard Books), or your favorite online bookstore.