Mother Lode

Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver

By: Gretchen Staebler

Narrated by: Linda Jones

At the age of sixty, Gretchen Staebler promises to spend one year in her childhood home caring for her stubbornly independent ninety-six-year-old mother—sort of a middle-aged gap year. Then her mother will move to assisted living and she will return to her own life.

It doesn't go as planned.

Rather than a retrospective, this mother-daughter story unfolds in real time with gripping honesty, bringing the listener along with the narrator through the struggle, doubts, and complexities of caregiving and daughterhood—and the beacons of light.

Penetrating the fog of her mother's advancing dementia and myriad health issues with humor, frustration, and compassion, Staebler slowly comes to accept and respect the mother she got, if not the one she wished for. In the process, she manifests non-negotiable self-care and learns more than she wants to know about aging, cognitive loss, and the healthcare system.

Any listener who is looking for a road map in caring for a family member, has ever had a mother, or is looking aging in the eye will find company on the journey in this candid, multi-award-winning memoir.

©2022 Gretchen Staebler (P)2025 Tantor Media

Critic reviews

". . . makes you feel as though a kindred soul is speaking to you."—Readers' Favorite

Tender and honest

I just finished with tears staining my cheeks. This book was such a delightful, honest story about life and the hardships of growing old and caring for a loved one in later life. She recants her experiences with humour and sometimes tears. As a geriatric home health social worker, her experiences resonated with my own. The writing was lovely, the narrator spot on. Just a wonderful, well written memoir.

BRAVO!!!!

An EXCEPTIONAL book! So WELL WRITTEN I will TRUELY recommend it to MANY! GRATEFUL it’s on Audio!
BRAVO!!!👏