It's my turn on the Blogtour Love & Care by Shaun Deeney.
About the Author
Shaun Deeney is a former journalist and Emmy award-winning film and TV producer. He has made current affairs programmes for ITV on social issues, including care. He is also the creator of a podcast on caring for his mother called Love and Care. Shaun has a degree in English and American Literature from Kent at Canterbury. He has two daughters and loves listening to Frank Sinatra. For more information visit shaundeeney.com.
Shaun is finally free of responsibilities to anyone but himself; single, with two grown up daughters, he is just embarking on a new life in a new country when he gets a call to say his father is dying.
His mother has Parkinson's Dementia and is in a care home. Shaun faces a stark choice: should he give up his new-found freedom, or turn his back on the woman he'd fought so hard to protect, not least from his own father? Shaun's mother had loved and cared for her son all her life. Could he now do the same for her?
It's a peculiar thing to experience, the next stage of life and having to take on certain on certain responsibilities when life comes full circle. The child becomes the carer to the parent. The once strong person in charge becomes vulnerable, frail and needs support.
There is always someone who ends up having to make a choice about stepping in, the question in this case is whether the past can be laid to rest to do so. You have to be able to separate the past and the present.
I think this is a read that will resonate just slightly more with readers who have lived experience of the subject matter. In fact perhaps those who are at different stages of their caring journey will be able to draw from it, both emotionally and practically,
It's an emotional read, but written with the ability to see the humour in situations that are often fleeting moments, anchors to the past often appearing in the present like small wormholes. The strength needed to be the reverse role, especially when the past still lays on a person like the rubble from a implosion.
The feeling of having a a slipping grasp on what used to be, which is an emotional minefield, is evident throughout the book. Its also what makes the read frank, poignant and memorable.
Buy Love & Care at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Endeavour pub date 9 Feb. 2023. Buy at Amazon com.
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