Rona's new book

I have just finished your book. I read it over the past week, which was a very hectic week for me. I read it before I went to bed, in the bathtub, on the subway and while waiting in the doctor's office and in the car dealership. This doesn't happen very often to me (and I am a voracious reader) so the book caught me from the get-go!

So much of your story seemed to be my story too, probably because it is in part every woman's story. I loved your writing style, and the level of detail you put into every episode.

In our family we had so much anger directed at our mother. But now, two years after her death, as I mull over the past, I find myself understanding her so much more. I achingly miss her.

I just called my twin sister, and she has started reading the book obsessively as well. Our younger sister is going to read it, too. After that we plan to get together and have a real gab-fest about it, over one, or two, or maybe three glasses of wine, because it will be a long night. We'll drink a toast to you! Congratulations. Not only on your book but on your life as well.

I was taken by this book from the first pages – how well it was written, the frank and brutally honest way in which Rona was able to articulate her past, her story, her journey. It gave me new insights into my own relationship with my mother and the challenges we were able to overcome. It’s a great read for anyone, even men(!) and is particularly enjoyable for those of us who are older than Barbie! I immediately passed it along to my mother and then to the other women in our circle – and all have really enjoyed it.

Dear Rona,

Just finished reading your book and couldn't put it down while I was reading it! I have been recommending it to others!

Sorry I missed you at the Jewish Book Fair. I had hoped to hear you speak. Any speaking engagements coming up?

Regards,

Joy

Rona - It was great to meet you last night and hear about the process of writing your book. I loved the book and I think it touches us all in many profound ways. You've written it with grace and love and a deep desire to understand your mother. We as daughters and mothers can learn from your ability to tell the story without the judgment that so often accompanies any reflection. Congratulations!

Dear Rona
I just finished reading your book and I am feeling quite overwhelmed with gratitude to you for your generosity in sharing your story. I, like the many who have already written to you, feel a kinship with you, that goes well beyond a sense of shared history.

I am just a couple years younger than you and come from a large family. We too suffered with our father's alcoholism in our home, held at bay by the illusion of specialness that our mother desperately clung to. I was one of the daughters who dared to speak the truth to him and was physically abused for it, which effectively sidelined me from much of my early life.

Speaking my own truth in my late thirties freed me from my own battle with the disease.

I still hold my mother at a distance but I am much more accepting of her and her need to see the world differently from how I see it now. Her fantasies, although they confused and annoyed me, also fuelled my own dreams and kept me alive during my darkest times.

My own mothering of my daughter was as fraught with guilt and shame as yours was with your son. I too was clueless about postpartum depression. However, I've been able to help her through her bouts of depression during her children's births. I am a much better grandmother than mother, but I'm still learning about both of these roles as they continue to change.

There is so much more I would like to say...and perhaps I will someday...I have enjoyed your writing for years as Editor in Chief at Chatelaine. You accomplished all of the goals you described in your conversation with Keitha before you took the job. I look forward to more from you in whatever form or forum it takes. All the best and thanks again, Margaret

p.s Did you win that YWCA Women of distinction award? Probably more than once right?
M.

Hi, Rona. I'm just finishing My Mother's Daughter. i read it on the subway to and from work and I am enthralled by it. I rarely laugh while reading a book on the subway, but now find myself smiling and sometimes even tearing up. A longtime Chatelaine subscriber, I remember how much I enjoyed your editorials.

I can hardly put your book down. Your candour and your observations are as cathartic for the reader as they would have been for you to write. Our lives are so different and yet so similar. You hold a mirror to women of every age and they see themselves more clearly. Thank you for sharing your life and Fredelle with us. I look forward to reading everything you write./ Judy

Thanks, Rona, for a gripping memoir. I, too, feel as if I know you and your mother after this.I remember feeling bereft when you left Chatelaine after being Editor in Chief for ten years and almost gave up subscribing.
Now that I've found your website, I plan to be back often to enjoy your current writings.

Dear Rona,

When I spotted this book at Chapters I felt like I had been re-united with an old friend; I, like so many others, was a faithful subscriber to Chatelaine and looked forward to your monthly editorial during your "reign" :). For my 32nd birthday I asked my mother to purchase My Mother's Daughter for me.

I could not put it down ... well actually, I was reading the depiction of your mom's passing while eating soup and I had to stop because I was literally sobbing tears into my soup!

I love your writing. I am in awe of the courage and strength that it took to confront and share some of the struggles you lived through. I am fascinated by the story of your family (I just finished reading At Home In The World ...)

I am fortunate enough to be very close to my mother - we definitely went through the fights for power, etc. etc, but now enjoy a wonderful relationship. I usually talk to her on the phone 3 and 4 times a day. Your book made me realize just how precious every single moment is.

Thank you for having the courage to share such an incredible story - you are my hero.

All the best to you always -

Marion Abbott

Bravo Rona! I just read your book (I'm ashamed to say it languished on my 'to read' shelf for a long time) and I loved it. So honest and open. I am in awe of your courage!

As soon as I finished reading it, I called my own mom and had a long chin wag.

I always looked forward to reading your column in Chatelaine so it only followed that I had to read your new book. It was nothing less than I had expected - I could not put it down. I totally can understand your mother/daughter problems as I too have experienced them, both with my own mother, who is now 91, and sadly, with my own daughter, who is 46. I feel now that I will have to read your mother's books too.
Thank you for sharing your story.

Rona - It was great to meet you last night and hear about the process of writing your book. I loved the book and I think it touches us all in many profound ways. You've written it with grace and love and a deep desire to understand your mother. We as daughters and mothers can learn from your ability to tell the story without the judgment that so often accompanies any reflection. Congratulations!

Ms. Maynard,

I have just read your book, and I wanted to tell you how much your voice spoke to my experiences with my mother. My mother passed away from brain cancer on December 12, 2007 at 8:07 p.m. A teacher for 35 years, my mother's passion for life and people was infectious. The pain I felt while watching her become confused, lose her mind and then her life is so accurately reflected in your book.

Thank you for writing such a compelling memoir.

I have just finished rereading My Mother's Daughter and perhaps because I am at a different time in my life, the book means all the more to me now than at the first reading. My husband and I are planning a move, from Calgary to Victoria, a kind of semi-retirement, and because we are downsizing, many things, furniture and the like, have to be sorted through and disposed of one way or another. Many of these things are heirlooms I inherited from my parents. In reading your book, I felt keenly how important to you your mother's things were, and the passage about sleeping in your mother's nightgown made me rush to see if I had saved my mother's housecoat (which still smelled like her). I was so relieved to find that I had and I buried my face in its soft velveteen folds, remembering how it felt to hug her cuddly warm body early in the morning.
Well, I hadn't meant to write so much, but thank you for writing the book. You have awakened yet again memories of my parents to whom I was so close. Such memories are the photograph album of the mind, whose colours, rich and true, never fade with time.
Thank you again,
Yours,
Morag Haysom

Wow.
Came here from your comment on the Sisterhood Project blog. Don't know why I clicked but ... these are the mysteries sometimes.
I will be out looking for your book this weekend. What an stunning and amazing thing I've stumbled on. Me with my very own mother/daughter story still swirling about my life, and you with a brilliant and wise resource right at my fingertips. Thank you.

Rona,

I just wanted to let you know that I'm finally at the point in my pile of "to be read" books, where I am beginning to savour yours. I've just finished the first few chapters, and I wanted to send you a gushing thanks. I foresee an all night session.

The coffee has brewed... so I will leave it at this for now. Stunning. Just perfectly glorious.

deb