Half poems, half prose. The memoir opens with Jo. Poems all. It moves on from there to Dad. Dad was physically abusive to me from eleven to seventeen. He used a razor strap in his study and a half wooden shingle in the dining room. Prose and a poem at the end of his life. Next Mom. Looking back. Sadness because I went to Illinois to teach high school English. Because she died so young. I only felt my love after she died. Next, My Second Black Mother. I was the only white person at the funeral service. They smiled and included me. She taught me all the important characteristics: justice, courage, and faith. Next, Chris. Journal entries by Chris, plus four of my poems at the end. Now Me Again. December 22, 2009 when I had the two strokes. Things changed permanently. I couldn’t swallow. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t write. One poem sums it up: “I Told No One” about the stroke. Next, Jen. Poems. One poem in particular, implanted in my heart, whirling with Jen at “New Years Eve.” Next, Me at Camp Hio Ridge or Lac de Mille Lacs, or Striper Fishing, Sailing, and Tennis or After the Strokes. It draws you in to my memoir as I tell it. Honest, compelling, sad, and joyous. You can find my book here.