Fly while you still have wings and other lessons my resilient mother taught me - Joyce Rupp

In this heartfelt memoir about her mother Hilda's final years, Joyce Rupp sharesthe lessons her mother taught her, especially to "fly while you still havewings." As a poor farmer's wife and the mother of eight living on rented land inMaryhill, Iowa, Hilda lived a life with hard labor and constant responsibility-frommilking cows and raising chickens to keeping the farm's financial ledger. Ruppshows how the difficulties of her mother's early years and family life, including theloss of a twenty-three-year-old son, forged a resilience that guided her through theillnesses and losses she faced later on. This affectionate profile of their relationshipis, at the same time, an honest self-examination as Rupp shares the ways she failedto listen to, accept, and understand her mother in her final years.Rupp begins each chapter with a meditative poem that captures the essence ofeach stage in the journey. Her unfailing candor and profound faith illumine thisstory of a mother and daughter with a universal spirit of hope, reconciliation, andpeace.Readers who care for the elderly will identify with the joys and sorrows that Ruppexperienced. Likewise, those who are grieving for a parent will find an open andsensitive portrayal of the conflicting emotions that arise in the process of lettinggo. Anyone approaching their elder years will discover a model of how to enter theaging process with dignity and honesty that accepts the