A deeply emotional memoir of one woman’s decision to take care of her mother with cancer while juggling everyday life as a mom of two.

At four years of age, Anne’s mother drops her off at her father’s place and drives away with her new boyfriend in a battered white pickup truck. Through the rest of her childhood and youth, she only sees her mother a handful of times. Life with her father is difficult, but she manages to build a successful life and career, eventually becoming a mother herself.

What do you do when the mother you don’t know well falls ill?

Right after Anne turns forty, she learns her mother has stage four lung cancer. As the only person who can provide care, she is faced with a difficult choice: continue living her life at a safe distance, or step in and care for the mother who didn’t care for her.

Told with raw honesty, A Mere Reflection of My Mother confronts the complexities of nearly estranged mother-daughter relationships and addresses the realities of being an unexpected caretaker while managing a career and a family as a single parent.