MOTHERCARE On Obligation, Love, Death, and Ambivalence

Kim Niemi's delivery of this memoir takes a potentially emotional situation and, as the author does, expresses it with a neutrality that is based more in thought than emotion. Whether this work is considered a short memoir or an extended essay, it reflects the author's continual adjustments through 11 years of caring for her mother, for whom she did not have wholly positive feelings. Niemi recounts the shifting responsibilities the author juggled with her two sisters and full-time caregivers. Niemi details the facts of Tillman's mother's memory loss, Tillman's difficulties with the diagnosis, and the mother's narcissism, which can wound without warning. She smoothly transitions from the narrative to the author's periodic recommendations for those who face the problems of dealing with dementia, subpar caregivers, inadequate doctors, and contemplating their own death. S.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2023]