I’ve Just Self-Published a Memoir
And it’s kind of weird and wonderful…
It took me over three years to write and rewrite my first (perhaps only) memoir, The Pianist’s Only Daughter, the story of life with my creative, academic, high-achieving parents. They were divorced when I was 15 and I was the only child — the only daughter — and following lots of twists and turns through all of our lives, I ended up helping both of them when they needed support in old age. My mom struggled with Parkinson’s disease and later my dad fell — and both needed me to help with arranging and overseeing their care.
Because I am a social worker and got my PhD in social work with a special focus on aging and the aged, I thought I’d be great at dealing with issues of eldercare. But it was still hard.
If you’ve been through it with your own parents or older relatives, you understand how things don’t quite work out the way you’d like in the world of available services for senior living and care. And the responsibility for another person, a parent, weighs heavily. My memoir deals with all this and folds in my gerontologist’s knowledge to my daughter’s story.
Writing took time; sending queries took more time
Throughout the pandemic, I attended weekly writing workshop courses over Zoom that…
