Overview

Helen is a free-spirited art worker who hopes to travel one day, but as her mother, Edna, nears her mid-nineties and has been diagnosed with dementia, Helen knows she is going to require increasing support and care as the illness inevitably progresses. Relocation isn't an option. Oblivious to her developing dementia, Edna is feisty and independent and intends to die in her own home without ever needing to be looked after in any way. And what Edna wants, she usually gets. This frank, often funny, suspenseful, and at times intensely dramatic, true story carries the reader on the writer's personal journey as she takes on her biggest project yet - ""Project Mum"" - dealing with accidents, hospital visits, brushes with the police, and that 'secret Nan's business' without letting Edna ever realise why she is there. Many amusing incidents lighten the sometimes tedious, semi-cloistered life of a live-in carer. Helen shares her experiences with wisdom and humour and gives insights into the strategies and management tools she used to stay the course. It's a book about mothers and daughters, dementia and carers, and the healing power of laughter.

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9780648344629

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Helen Broadhurst's life has been somewhat nomadic - more by accident than design - taking her from regional N.S.W. to Sydney as a child then P.N.G. in early adulthood. There she learned various crafts from villagers, particularly traditional potting techniques in the West Sepik Province. Returning to Australia in the mid-seventies with her family, Helen developed as a potter, teaching and conducting workshops throughout regional Queensland. During the nineties this morphed into a Community Arts place-making practice; she undertook projects making public art in many diverse communities, again travelling Queensland. Sculpture and mosaics became specialties. Describing herself as a 'maker' rather than a writer, throughout her different activities, she did write spasmodically for craft periodicals, as well as various professional publications. During her time as carer for her mother, Edna, she kept notes, as well as writing copious emails and letters to her daughters, describing her mother's antics and how she dealt with their consequences. This memoir is the result.

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