They Left Us Everything
A Memoir
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4.3 • 121 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2015 RBC Taylor Prize
Winner of the 2016 Forest of Reading® Evergreen Award™
After almost twenty years of caring for elderly parents—first for their senile father, and then for their cantankerous ninety-three-year-old mother—author Plum Johnson and her three younger brothers experience conflicted feelings of grief and relief when their mother, the surviving parent, dies. Now they must empty and sell the beloved family home, which hasn’t been de-cluttered in more than half a century. Twenty-three rooms bulge with history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum remembers her loving but difficult parents who could not have been more different: the British father, a handsome, disciplined patriarch who nonetheless could not control his opinionated, extroverted Southern-belle wife who loved tennis and gin gimlets. The task consumes her, becoming more rewarding than she ever imagined. Items from childhood trigger memories of her eccentric family growing up in a small town on the shores of Lake Ontario 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.
They Left Us Everything is a funny, touching memoir about the importance of preserving family history to make sense of the past and nurturing family bonds to safeguard the future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An eclectic family and their long-time family home, both rich with history and depth, provide the backdrop for a candid memoir by Johnson, a Toronto-based author, entrepreneur and publisher. Chronicling Johnson's personal journey after the death of her mother, the book follows her 16-month quest to empty the labyrinthine family home, brimming with the archaeological m lange of generations, and navigate the emotional fallout of their conflicted relationship. Unearthed family treasures spark memories and fill blanks, from Johnson's childhood with an authoritative British father constantly at odds with her free-spirited Southern-Belle mother to her adulthood spent caring for them as their bodies and minds deteriorated. At times heartbreaking and at others hysterically funny, Johnson's memories propel the narrative from volatile mid-century Singapore to a sprawling, colonial-era Virginia estate and beyond, but always settle back to the rambling family home on the shores of Lake Ontario; a place "seared into their bones." Though it can be undirected and chronologically disjointed, suggesting a highly reflective writing process, the book's descriptive prose brings these places and people to life and poignantly conveys the quasi-spiritual journey that helps Johnson overcome her grief.
Customer Reviews
Lovely tribute to death and life
I loved the book, the imagery and the way Plum brought the letters to life. Fraught with her own emotions at the end of her mother’s story, she was able to create a new one from memories and letters and mementos. Beautifully crafted.
They Left Us Everything
I really enjoyed this book. I love family stories and the fact that this is about a real family made it even better. Written wth warmth and truth and humour. I enjoyed learning about the past life of the parents. Very interesting book.
They left us everything, Plum Johnson
They Left Us Everything, by Plum Johnson is a memoir that resonates with me and likely many readers. Johnson sets out to recount her family story and writes a narrative that is so relatable. I know of many families who have sorted through boxes of their parents’ knick knacks, piles of paper, and miscellaneous, and it’s very time consuming. Amidst the effortful work of sifting through the family boxes of pictures and household items is the value of memories that jump out, for example, when looking at a particular kitchen gadget. Johnson successfully weaves through her family’s story and history, and states a strong point of the importance and closure of sifting through family clutter.