Lesson #179: It’s okay to stay up past your bedtime when a book is to blame Lesson # 110: Menopause is a feminist issue. Lesson # 63: Your heartbreak will last exactly as long as it’s Lesson #45: Try and do your stupid things with kind people If you’re not, stop (This one appears in the chapter called ‘For when you’re a jerk.’ Lesson #30: If you’re young, forgive yourself. Lesson #18: ‘The End’ does not mean ‘THE END’ Lesson #1: If you have a family, you have a story The Lessons serve as mother-to-daughter tips for a fulfilling life, and each one appears after family anecdotes that illustrate the points. This is what Ella has done for her daughter and all who follow her. When my mother, the keeper of our family history and stories, began losing those memories due to encroaching dementia, I promised that I would hold, remember – and tell – the stories for her. And, I’m afraid to say, the stories can’t just be told – they need to be kept. The final one sums up her purpose: ‘ Lesson #188: Tell your stories.Ī family is only as strong as the stories that are told. Woven throughout are 188 ‘Lessons’ for her daughter. In the process, she documented a lively and fascinating family history, encompassing her own stories but also those of her great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents: their lives, loves and adventures. When Australian writer and mother Ella Ward was undergoing treatment for a rare cancer at the age of thirty-six, she began a series of letters to her young daughter, in case she would not be around as her daughter grew into adulthood It ticks so many boxes for me: family history, family stories, personal challenges and insights, humour…I know it will be one of my ‘stand-out-reads’ of 2022. I fell in love with this book while reading its opening pages.
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