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Keeping Katherine: A Mother's Journey to Acceptance
Katherine was a beautiful, perfect baby for the first year of her life. Then, without warning, she changed forever. She started crossing her eyes. She cried at night for hours at a time and could not be soothed. She stopped saying words, stopped crawling, and began what would become a lifelong habit of wringing her hands. Hospital visits and consultations with doctors offered no answers to the mystery. Soon Katherine slipped away to a place her mother and father could never reach.
In Keeping Katherine , Susan Zimmermann tells the story of her life with her daughter Katherine, who has Rett syndrome, a devastating neurological disorder. Writing with honesty and candor, Zimmermann chronicles her personal journey to accept the changed dynamic of her family; the strain of caring for a special needs child and the pressure it placed on her marriage, career, and relationship with her parents; the dilemma of whether Kat would be better cared for in a group home; and most important, the altered reality of her daughter’s future. A story of personal transformation that reminds us that it isn’t what happens to us that shapes our humanity, but how we react, Keeping Katherine shows the unconditional love that exists in families and the gifts the profoundly disabled can offer to those who try to understand them.
In Keeping Katherine , Susan Zimmermann tells the story of her life with her daughter Katherine, who has Rett syndrome, a devastating neurological disorder. Writing with honesty and candor, Zimmermann chronicles her personal journey to accept the changed dynamic of her family; the strain of caring for a special needs child and the pressure it placed on her marriage, career, and relationship with her parents; the dilemma of whether Kat would be better cared for in a group home; and most important, the altered reality of her daughter’s future. A story of personal transformation that reminds us that it isn’t what happens to us that shapes our humanity, but how we react, Keeping Katherine shows the unconditional love that exists in families and the gifts the profoundly disabled can offer to those who try to understand them.
- GenresNonfictionParenting
240 pages, Paperback
First published December 28, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 4, 2010
I'm not sure how to review a book I feel I could have written - not because I feel like I have the writing skills of Susan Zimmerman, but because she wrote sentences that came straight from my heart. Feelings and thoughts and experiences and dreams and joys and heartaches I have experienced or know I will experience...and wrote them perfectly and beautifully. Recommended to anyone who wants to understand any sort of physical or mental handicap and what it might feel like to live with it day by day...the heartaches and the blessings. So glad people like her paved the way for people like me. I read straight for 2 days. :)
March 28, 2012
The parents in this story had a beautiful, normal baby for a short time and then a scary deterioration began happening to Katherine, the child. Exhaustive tests were normal yet she continued to spiral away from normalcy. It would be years before the parents learned Katherine's true diagnosis. This is the mother's story -- how she dealt with the situation, told with honesty and grace. It's a personal story, the same kind each of us have in any given situation and we all handle things differently.
At first, the parents thought Katherine's problem was their fault, giving her stream water on a camping trip. During the time they suspected that might be the origin, Susan, the mother, grew to hate Katherine. Any parent of a severely disabled child can attest to the profound daily challenges of caring for such a child. Even though I didn't like or agree with Susan's feelings and attitude during that time, I respect her courage in facing truths and writing with such honesty while preserving intimate details of Katherine's personal life as she grows older.
Susan's parents, Katherine's grandparents, totally ignored the child. While we can't force relationships, we can foster understanding -- that is if we understand ourselves, and it seems that was a long time coming in this family. However, Katherine's other grandparents and a number of other people loved her dearly as she was and gave her what all children need, love, attention and fun.
Many things about the book amazed me, both good and bad. If you read the book, consider that if Susan had parents who could ignore a disabled grandchild, what warmth and understanding might Susan have missed in her own growing up years? Susan sounds like an intelligent and reflective individual to me. She pushed herself to do some things that helped her form a loving relationship with Katherine. She managed to keep peace in her family, and the 3 younger siblings to Katherine love their disabled sister dearly.
There are families that handle severely disabled children differently, some better, some worse. This is one mother's story, one disabled child's story. I would have liked to know more about Katherine.
A child disabled from birth is a different thing in a family to one that is normal for a year and then slowly grinds to a halt, so to speak.
At first, the parents thought Katherine's problem was their fault, giving her stream water on a camping trip. During the time they suspected that might be the origin, Susan, the mother, grew to hate Katherine. Any parent of a severely disabled child can attest to the profound daily challenges of caring for such a child. Even though I didn't like or agree with Susan's feelings and attitude during that time, I respect her courage in facing truths and writing with such honesty while preserving intimate details of Katherine's personal life as she grows older.
Susan's parents, Katherine's grandparents, totally ignored the child. While we can't force relationships, we can foster understanding -- that is if we understand ourselves, and it seems that was a long time coming in this family. However, Katherine's other grandparents and a number of other people loved her dearly as she was and gave her what all children need, love, attention and fun.
Many things about the book amazed me, both good and bad. If you read the book, consider that if Susan had parents who could ignore a disabled grandchild, what warmth and understanding might Susan have missed in her own growing up years? Susan sounds like an intelligent and reflective individual to me. She pushed herself to do some things that helped her form a loving relationship with Katherine. She managed to keep peace in her family, and the 3 younger siblings to Katherine love their disabled sister dearly.
There are families that handle severely disabled children differently, some better, some worse. This is one mother's story, one disabled child's story. I would have liked to know more about Katherine.
A child disabled from birth is a different thing in a family to one that is normal for a year and then slowly grinds to a halt, so to speak.
June 8, 2015
Not so much. Whiny version of parents raising daughter with Rett syndrome. Seemed like they had an endless stream of helpers and babysitters while they went hiking and left the daughter at home.
October 7, 2015
I read this book for a class and really enjoyed it. It offers a lot of insight into what's it like to be a parent to a child with a disability.
November 6, 2021
was required to read this for a class and I could barely stomach the parents’ ableism. many of the discussion questions for this book came from a pro eugenics mindset so hard hard pass on this one.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews