Broken Wing, Fallen Sky

In Broken Wing, Falling Sky Fran Muir gives us a moving memoir of her mother and a portrait of a complicated mother-daughter relationship in which much was left unspoken. After undergoing a general anaesthetic for a mastectomy, Fran’s mother, Jean, develops problems with short-term memory, and her world changes. Using fragments of family history, journals, and her mother’s medical and other records, Muir weaves a lyrical tapestry of her mother’s life and death along with her own struggle to make sense of the health care system. This a powerful story of an encounter with medical bureaucracy as well as a portrait of building family connections while letting go.