My Mother’s Clothes ~ Book Review

 

My Mother’s Clothes – Hardcover – by Jeanette Montgomery Barron

 

I only wish I had found this book before my mother died. Like the author’s mother, mine accumulated clothing, shoes, handbags, and jewelry to the point that I have adopted a minimalist approach. As my mother slipped deeper into dementia in her final years, she never lost her love of clothes, dressing up, and going out.  When she could no longer party and dance the night away, we watched “Dancing With The Stars” every week instead. After she died, I was confronted with what to do with all of her things. Sadly, her closets were permeated with tobacco odor, and just about all of it had to be thrown out. If I had only taken pictures!

 

I have found Barron’s biographical tapestry comforting in letting go of my mother’s “things.” Her material objects were so similar to my own mother’s, it is downright eerie. Now, I am sending the book to my friend who lost her mother to Alzheimer’s Disease. My friend is struggling to part with her mother’s possessions and I hope this book inspires her. Below is the book description from Amazon.

“This is a book about the depth of a daughter's love, and the breadth of a mother's life; it is about letting go, but never forgetting...A photographer's love letter to her late mother, whose five-year struggle with Alzheimer's and devout passion for couture clothing inspired this poignant and moving photo essay which sparkles with the memories of her mother's glamorous and fashionable life.

     In My Mother's Clothes, photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron creates a poignant and enduring portrait of her late mother through still life images of her cherished clothing, shoes, and personal possessions. As her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's progressed, robbing her of any remembered past, Montgomery Barron began this unique visual album as a way of both sparking her mother's memories, and coping with her own sense of loss. Poetic, riveting, elegant, My Mother's Clothes is part fashion diary, part personal memoir, part loving memorial, and part life celebration. An inspiring and intimate true story told in picture and word that will be cherished by mothers and daughters, by fashion lovers and photography fans, by those grieving the loss of a loved one or anyone suffering from or affected by Alzheimer's.”