They Left Us Everything

After almost twenty years of caring for elderly parentsfirst for their senile father,and then for their cantankerous ninety-three-year-old motherauthor Plum Johnsonand her three younger brothers experience conflicted feelings of grief and relief whentheir mother, the surviving parent, dies. Now they must empty and sell the belovedfamily home, which hasn't been de-cluttered in more than half a century. Twenty-threerooms bulge with history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum remembers her lovingbut difficult parents who could not have been more different: the British father, ahandsome, disciplined patriarch who nonetheless could not control his opinionated,extroverted Southern-belle wife who loved tennis and gin gimlets. The task consumesher, becoming more rewarding than she ever imagined. Items from childhood triggermemories of her eccentric family growing up in a small town on the shores of LakeOntarioin the 1950s and 60s. But unearthing new facts about her parents helps herreconcile those relationships with a more accepting perspective about who they wereand what they valued. They Left Us Everythingis a funny, touching memoir about the importance of preservingfamily history to make sense of the past and nurturing family bonds to safeguard thefuture.