Finding Ruth: A Daughter’s Quest to Discover Her Mother’s Past
by Cynthia Hamilton  
Reviewed by S. S. Bazinet

Description:
A WRITER TURNS DETECTIVE TO LEARN WHAT HER MOTHER’S LIFE HAD BEEN LIKE BEFORE ALZHEIMER’S STOLE HER MEMORIES. A TRUE STORY OF FORGIVENESS AND HEALING.

As fiercely independent Ruth struggles to stay self-reliant at the age of 86, each day brings her closer to an event that will alter her life forever. While her author daughter shifts through Ruth’s possessions prior to her move into a skilled nursing facility, she discovers a previously unseen photo from 1949 and realizes how little she knows of her mother’s life.

As Alzheimer’s continues to warp Ruth’s once sharp mind, she can no longer shed any light on the past. Yearning to know who her mother was as a person in her own right, the author painstakingly reconstructs Ruth’s life from photos, letters, public records and firsthand memories.

What emerges is a portrait of a bright, beautiful woman who is propelled through decades of broken promises and heartache, bouncing from one ill-fated relationship to the next, but always staying strong, always surviving. Through a timeline going back sixty years, the author gleans a much better understanding of the woman she had known only as Mom.

“SOUL-BEARING AND HEART-WARMING.” K. ANSBRO

Review: “A beautifully written story of a soul’s journey!”

This is a story of Ruth. It’s told through the eyes of her daughter. After witnessing many of the trials and tribulations in her mother’s life, the author wanted to better understand the “person” who was behind the label of “Mom.” She started out by gathering up as much information as possible about her mother’s life. Armed with that information and her own personal remembrances, the author put her findings into story form. And she did it beautifully. This story unfolds in a way that enables the reader to not only understand the events in Ruth’s life, but to feel what she was feeling. More importantly for me, it gave me an overview of what I like to think of as a soul’s journey.

Ruth started out as a smart, extremely attractive young woman who was interested in the arts, beauty and life itself. However, as she stepped forward, eager to explore the world, she wasn’t prepared for the idea of a stable but unsatisfying first marriage. After five years, she decided to bravely leave that marriage in search of true love and fulfillment. However, once again, she found herself swept up by circumstances that were extremely challenging. Never seeming able to stay ahead of the trials and hardships that populated her life, she did her best for her children. She also continued to search for the elusive quality called love. However, as the years passed, she eventually found herself succumbing to the pain and failures she’d experienced. The harsh realities of life seemed to outweigh the good. A sense of bitterness ensued.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. Ruth developed Alzheimer’s. When I looked up the definition, I found that it’s a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. In Ruth’s case, it seemed to sweep away her mind’s agonizing memories and pain. In the latter days of her life, Ruth returned to the happy, cheerful person she’d once been. She wasn’t capable of caring for herself, but she was capable of loving freely again.

After reading Ruth’s story, I felt inspired by the fact that underneath all the bitterness that can result from a very difficult life, the beautiful heart and soul are still there. When the mind is cast aside, our true essence exists in a purity and innocence that we rarely experience in our normal state.

Five inspirational stars!

Visit Cynthia Hamilton’s Website and her Amazon Author Page.
You can also find her on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.

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