Don't Call Me Mother

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RetailAt the age of four, a little girl stands on a cold, windy railroad platform in Wichita, Kansas to watch the train take her mother away. For the rest of her life, her mother will be only an occasional and troubled visitor. Linda Joy Myers' compassionate, gripping, and soul-searching memoir tells the story of three generations of daughters who long for their absent mothers, yet unwittingly recreate a pattern that she was determined to break. Accompany Linda as she uncovers family secrets, finds solace in music, and begins her healing journey. Learn how she transcends the prison of childhood to discover light in the darkness of strife, abuse, and undiagnosed mental illness. Don't Call Me Mother was originally published in 2005. This revised edition includes a new introduction and afterword, with new insights about memoir writing. It's an inspiring chronicle of perseverance, healing, and the transformative power of forgiveness.ReviewIn this new edition of her memoir, Linda Joy Myers illustrates just how powerful the combination of memory confronted, forgiveness offered, and new love expressed, can be. What I admire most about this book is the way the author takes you to her most sustaining love -- the prairie land of the Midwest -- and concludes her story as a return to that place where forgiveness becomes "a feather on my heart, as natural as the plains wind."   --Shirley Showalter, former president of Goshen College, author of the blog I Have a Story Don't Call Me Mother takes me deep inside the mind of a young girl who has been spurned by that most important person in her life, her own mother. Without a guide to help her develop into a woman, Linda Joy is forced into a vulnerable, innovative search for dignity and survival that is at the heart of every hero's tale.  --Jerry Waxler, M.S., founder of the Memory Writers Network, author of Memoir Revolution, and Four Elements for Writers With poetically visceral prose, Linda Joy Myers tells of her relentless work to emerge from an abandoned and abused child to a forgiving and loving daughter, mother, and grandmother. This must-read memoir brings her raw dark secrets to life. I couldn't tear myself away. --Madeline Sharples, author of Leaving the Hall Light OnLinda Joy Myers eloquently renders the details of her past in this transformative memoir, allowing all of us to find redemption through her honest courage. For anyone yearning for self-discovery, Don't Call Me Mother serves as a compelling guide on a journey to wholeness. I loved the book.--Michele Weldon, assistant professor, Northwestern University and author of I Closed My Eyes, and Writing to Save Your Life.The new afterword pulls back the veil and lays bare the actual healing power of memoir. Poignant, visceral, and triumphant, this new section left me shaken and stunned with its raw beauty. As a reader, I felt I was witnessing transformation.--Kathleen Adams LPC, Author, Journal to the Self and Scribing the SoulDirector, Center for Journal Therapy and Therapeutic Writing InstituteFrom the AuthorPeople ask me why I wrote about the generations of mothers who abandoned their daughters, and how it was that I could find forgiveness for my mother and grandmother. My reason to write the book at first was for my own healing. The memories and stories were jumbled up in my mind, and there were several traumatic moments that kept reappearing. I learned about the power of writing the truth to heal, and even wrote a book about that: The Power of Memoir, and then I realized that because I couldn't find any books to help me understand and heal from my mother wounds, no books about this kind of abandonment, I needed to write a book myself.It took me many years to write the first edition of the book--I was living through some of the issues raised in the book, but after my mother died, I realized that I could write a more compassionate story than I would have before. Something very significant happened when she died that altered me and how I told my story.In this new edition, I wanted to share what happened "After the Memoir"--stories that link into how I kept searching for resolution and forgiveness, and how writing the memoir had helped me to see things more clearly. I visit families to explore more layers of truth, and I find truths all right--some are harder than others to bear, but in the end, there is even more resolution. Forgiveness is hard work, but when we manage it, we are free to simply Be.