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Mother Lode
- Author
- Gretchen Staebler
- Narrator
- Linda Jones
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Publish Date
- 13 May 2025
- Run Time
- 9 hours 41 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
At the age of sixty, Gretchen Staebler promises to spend one year in her childhood home caring for her stubbornly independent ninety-six-year-old mother—sort of a middle-aged gap year. Then her mother will move to assisted living and she will return to her own life.
It doesn't go as planned.
Rather than a retrospective, this mother-daughter story unfolds in real time with gripping honesty, bringing the listener along with the narrator through the struggle, doubts, and complexities of caregiving and daughterhood—and the beacons of light.
Penetrating the fog of her mother's advancing dementia and myriad health issues with humor, frustration, and compassion, Staebler slowly comes to accept and respect the mother she got, if not the one she wished for. In the process, she manifests non-negotiable self-care and learns more than she wants to know about aging, cognitive loss, and the healthcare system.
Any listener who is looking for a road map in caring for a family member, has ever had a mother, or is looking aging in the eye will find company on the journey in this candid, multi-award-winning memoir.
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Details
- Author
- Gretchen Staebler
- Narrator
- Linda Jones
- Duration
- 9 hours 41 minutes
- Release Date
- 13 May 2025
- ISBN
- 9798331908409
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Genre
- Memoirs, Care of the elderly, Age groups: the elderly, Biography: general, Gender studies: women and girls, Coping with ageing
Synopsis
". . . makes you feel as though a kindred soul is speaking to you." —Readers' FavoriteAt the age of sixty, Gretchen Staebler promises to spend one year in her childhood home caring for her stubbornly independent ninety-six-year-old mother—sort of a middle-aged gap year. Then her mother will move to assisted living and she will return to her own life.It doesn't go as planned.Rather than a retrospective, this mother-daughter story unfolds in real time with gripping honesty, bringing the listener along with the narrator through the struggle, doubts, and complexities of caregiving and daughterhood—and the beacons of light.Penetrating the fog of her mother's advancing dementia and myriad health issues with humor, frustration, and compassion, Staebler slowly comes to accept and respect the mother she got, if not the one she wished for. In the process, she manifests non-negotiable self-care and learns more than she wants to know about aging, cognitive loss, and the healthcare system.Any listener who is looking for a road map in caring for a family member, has ever had a mother, or is looking aging in the eye will find company on the journey in this candid, multi-award-winning memoir.
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