A memoir of how her mother's emotional neglect affected her life, and how she made peace with this. An exploration of faith, daughterhood, and motherhood.

A little trite at times (more so in the poetry pieces, I just have a different personal preference with poetry, I think), but having so many parallels from relationships in my own life made it relatable for me. I loved witnessing my own difficult relationship mirrored in this other person and put so eloquently at times. I have several highlighted sections that all fall in line with this as areas that made me feel seen, connected, or realized. The idea of "growing the pause" is something that stuck with me after reading it.
I do think the title gave me different expectations for the book itself, (I went in blind, only based on title/cover).

It was an interesting storyline on the whole, and I do have a friend I'll be recommending it to.

Not sure if this is helpful/needed, but there were typos at locations:
396: An instead of And
1485: added comma in "we'll always love each, other"
1783: "Mom and sit at..." Mom and I sit at...
2180: "What will do when you run out..." What will you do when you run out...
2212: Secrets should be singular Secret
2563: "May you sense you loved one's..." May you sense your loved one's...
3004: "an poignant" a poignant

This is a memoir and I hesitate to judge someone else’s lived experience. Marianne Richmond is a supremely talented artist and author and I have many fond memories of sharing her books with my own children. Her life was not without trauma however. Living with undiagnosed epilepsy caused by a slow growing brain tumor until her 20s caused a lot of uncertainty and fear. Her relationship with her parents, but especially her mom was difficult. Throughout her life she longed and pleaded for acceptance and support her mom simply could not give. This was a strong theme throughout the book and definitely contributed to my overall impression that this was a very depressing book. I admire that Marianne was able to become the parent to her children that she wished she had but overall this is a heavy, sad and rather dark glimpse at her life.