Sarah Leavitt, via CCPA
Vancouver writer and cartoonist Sarah Leavitt always thought of her mother Midge as “powerful, protective, and joyous.” Educated at Radcliffe College, Miriam (Midge) Leavitt was a well-respected teacher living in Fredericton who designed the New Brunswick Kindergarten curriculum.
Then, in her early 50s, Midge developed Alzheimer’s disease. Sarah writes, “I knew that I had to record what was happening to her and to our family. I wanted to be able to look back over my notes and remember all the moments of craziness, beauty, and tragedy — and not lose any of them.” Leavitt filled a box with notes and sketches during her mother’s illness, which eventually became Tangles.
As my mother changed, I changed too, forced to reconsider my own identity as a daughter and as an adult and to recreate my relationship with my mother.
– Sarah Leavitt. Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me. Calgary: Freehand Books, 2010; introduction
Excerpt from Tangles, via It’s Nice That.
Sources:
Leavitt, Sarah. “Author: I Dealt With Grief Through Writing and Drawing.” Huffington Post. May 4, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-leavitt/author-i-dealt-with-grief_b_1478864.html#s=941554
____. Email correspondence with SWCC, February 2013.
____. Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me. Calgary: Freehand Books, 2010. http://www.sarahleavitt.com/tangles; http://www.freehand-books.com/books/tangles
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