Plum Johnson > Quotes

“Don’t wait until you’re sixty-three and lying on a therapist’s couch,” I tell her. “Tell me what I’m doing wrong now … Have the conversation with me while we still have time to fix it!”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“How am I ever going to separate the trash from the treasure in the overstuffed contents accumulated during Mum and Dad’s combined lifetimes of more”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“I feel responsible for our memories. I don’t want them to disappear into thin air.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“Now I wonder if I’ll be as strong when my turn comes.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“I’d been horrified by Mum’s growing infirmities—”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“He hadn’t died in a sterile environment with a background noise of bleeping machines, having his veins pricked every few hours by a nurse needing to check his vital signs. Dad had a different definition of a vital sign: he died peacefully in his own bed, with the gentle sound of the waves rolling across the lake.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“Are all our unfulfilled dreams unconsciously passed down from mother to daughter for generations? Does it never end?”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“Like the rocks and pebbles under the surface, their edges eventually fit together, rubbed smooth over time because beneath it all there was a commitment to stay together.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“It felt like Mum was always either trying to direct my life or getting me to live hers and I was desperate to draw the line, It was our perpetual dance.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything, A Memoir

“But—if dreams are to be believed—I’m still trying to give myself back to my mother.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“but I want you to know that I recognize that this is one more example of the oldest child taking care of things.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

“you only have to turn your ship a few degrees to end up on a completely different shore.”
― Plum Johnson, They Left Us Everything: A Memoir