FINDING FRANCES
In the middle of a personal crisis and with two thousand miles between them, William Baldwin learns that his mother is ready to die, but no one is listening to her wishes for end-of-life care. Instead of taking a chance on life-sustaining treatment that can prolong her death but cannot cure her, Frances wants a natural and peaceful death. She asks William to convince the doctors, his father and his siblings to let nature take its course. Torn by her request, William, a med-school dropout, respects his mother’s dream of a good death but is not ready to let her go.
Finding Frances is one man’s journey to honor his mother and to understand the larger cultural and ethical issues of death. In doing so, he is relieved of his past burdens and learns how to live. Finding Frances is a commentary on advance care directives and patient rights in an age of technology and institutionalized health care. It’s a gentle, upbeat, and off-beat exploration of the love beneath a family’s defenses and contrary positions. But most of all, Finding Frances is an inspirational story about a woman who died as she lived, with dignity and occasional flashes of brilliance and hilarity.
THE O’MALLEY TRILOGY
Every woman is afraid of growing up to be her mother. Yet every daughter lives a trilogy – her own story intertwined with her mother’s and her grandmother’s. Eve Roberts is a young woman struggling with the breakup of a four-year relationship. Amy, her mother, wants to help but is limited by her abilities, unevenly strengthened by her adversities and still healing from an abusive relationship. Alternating chapters in a narrative voice between Eve and Amy, the story reverberates with the memories of the mother/daughter relationships of both women as they struggle to make peace and understand each other. The women weave together the story of the O’Malley family over five generations, in the process learning that they, too, are women of strength, courage and forgiveness. Eve learns that growing up to be like her mother might not be so bad after all. Set on a Florida beach over a long weekend, The O’Malley Trilogy explores the nature of the mother-daughter bond, its inevitabilities and its creative possibilities. Through lively dialogue, recollection and thought-provoking narrative, The O’Malley Trilogy gives hope and insight into the mother/daughter dilemma.
