Letters From Mother

Tanya's mother, Kathryn, is the Wicked Witch personified and her grandmother, Dottie, is perfect, at least Tanya always thought so, until they both died nearly a year apart leaving her feeling alone and lost. After Dottie died, Tanya and Kathryn experienced a complete break-down of their rocky relationship. When Dottie passed away unexpectedly, Kathryn had already been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and decided to keep it a secret from everyone. With Kathryn's death, Tanya finds herself feeling disconnected from her estranged mother, more than ever before, and struggling with her feelings. She's unsure how she feels about her mother. How could she do this? How dare she? Did she know Kathryn at all? Why did she do the things she did? Tanya is angry, resentful, and depressed. Then she finds the letters and begins a journey to understand her mother, their adversarial relationship, and herself. Kathryn's voice reaches back to her, after death, from throughout the year she spent struggling with cancer, the death of Dottie, her regrets, and her desperate attempts to mend her relationship with Tanya. Kathryn writes, "I've made so many mistakes in my life. Things I can never change. I sometimes think that regret is the weight I've been trying to lose my whole life. At this point I don't even care about that last ten pounds that I can never lose. It's the regret that bothers me most." Letters From Mother follows Tanya's emotional climb through grief, loss, regret, the highs and lows of motherhood, and discovering that being a mother is not about reaching for perfection, but accepting that mothers are human with flaws who do the best they can. With the support of her husband and children, Tanya finally understands what it means to be a mother and how truly unattainable perfection is.