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Stone Cold Tea
In Stone Cold Tea, a beautifully rendered creative non-fiction memoir, Winn Bray Rathbun takes us from early childhood in small-town Welland, Ontario, where she was the youngest in a working-class family of six, to her growing awareness much later in life that her siblings’ perceptions and recollections of family life were surprisingly different from her own. As young children, Winn and her adored older sister, Jayne, enjoy a carefree existence within the shelter of their loving parents and older brothers, Jim and Paul. When their father dies while Winn and Jayne are still very young, their mother, Cathy, struggles to find financial and emotional equilibrium. As the fissures in Cathy’s fragile mental health deepen, she frequently withdraws to a place only she can go, leaving Rathbun to wonder, “What did we really know about our mother? Where did that thick river of Alzheimer’s take her?”
With insight, compassion, and wit, Rathbun attempts to find some answers by weaving an imagined account of her mother’s memories, gleaned from both long conversations over countless pots of tea and Cathy’s own writings, into the narrative of her own life. This is a book that will resonate not only with those who have witnessed a loved one’s descent into Alzheimer’s, but with anyone who ponders their own family’s dynamics, secrets, questions, misunderstandings, and ties that bind.
With insight, compassion, and wit, Rathbun attempts to find some answers by weaving an imagined account of her mother’s memories, gleaned from both long conversations over countless pots of tea and Cathy’s own writings, into the narrative of her own life. This is a book that will resonate not only with those who have witnessed a loved one’s descent into Alzheimer’s, but with anyone who ponders their own family’s dynamics, secrets, questions, misunderstandings, and ties that bind.
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Published June 9, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 11, 2025
This book will fill you with so many emotions in the best way.
This book was so wholesome and warm but at the same time so honest and vulnerable and tugs at every one of your heart strings.
The writing feels very much like you are out for coffee with the author , with an old friend.
I related to so much of this book.
Absolutely would read again.
This book was so wholesome and warm but at the same time so honest and vulnerable and tugs at every one of your heart strings.
The writing feels very much like you are out for coffee with the author , with an old friend.
I related to so much of this book.
Absolutely would read again.
March 17, 2026
Stone Cold Tea is the kind of memoir that stays with you long after you turn the last page. Winn Bray Rathbun doesn’t just tell her story she carefully unravels it, piece by piece, with honesty, warmth, and quiet strength.
What makes this book stand out is its emotional precision. The contrast between Winn’s childhood memories and her siblings’ differing perspectives adds a powerful layer of complexity. It forces you to reflect on how fragile and subjective family history really is.
The portrayal of her mother, Cathy, is especially striking. Rathbun handles the progression of Alzheimer’s with remarkable compassion, never reducing it to tragedy alone, but instead exploring it as something deeply human, confusing, and at times heartbreakingly distant. The question “What did we really know about our mother?” lingers throughout the narrative and gives the book its emotional anchor.
The integration of imagined memories alongside real conversations and writings is done seamlessly. It doesn’t feel artificial it feels necessary. It’s a thoughtful attempt to bridge the gap between who her mother was and who she became.
This isn’t just a story about loss. It’s about memory, identity, and the quiet, complicated love that exists within families.
If you’ve ever questioned your past, tried to understand a parent, or watched someone slowly fade, this book will hit home.
What makes this book stand out is its emotional precision. The contrast between Winn’s childhood memories and her siblings’ differing perspectives adds a powerful layer of complexity. It forces you to reflect on how fragile and subjective family history really is.
The portrayal of her mother, Cathy, is especially striking. Rathbun handles the progression of Alzheimer’s with remarkable compassion, never reducing it to tragedy alone, but instead exploring it as something deeply human, confusing, and at times heartbreakingly distant. The question “What did we really know about our mother?” lingers throughout the narrative and gives the book its emotional anchor.
The integration of imagined memories alongside real conversations and writings is done seamlessly. It doesn’t feel artificial it feels necessary. It’s a thoughtful attempt to bridge the gap between who her mother was and who she became.
This isn’t just a story about loss. It’s about memory, identity, and the quiet, complicated love that exists within families.
If you’ve ever questioned your past, tried to understand a parent, or watched someone slowly fade, this book will hit home.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews