An introduction to the healing power of reminiscence, In My Mother's Kitchen focuses on the steps to recalling, recording, and celebrating the significant memories that help the reader recognize and value the individuals and incidents that shaped their lives. Utilizing sense memory prompts, it is useful for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one, it is also a helpful tool for those who with to journal their family histories.
This is a useful guide for anyone who wants to record some family stories and can't get started, or for someone working through the grief of losing someone, especially a parent. It's short, barely 80 pages, and doesn't overwork the concept of celebrating memories through ritual. The exercises are brief, just suggestions that can work as prompts for writing down those memories and figuring out what to do with them. The author gives very brief examples from her own struggle in coming to terms with her mother's death.