In this heartfelt memoir about her mother Hilda's final years, Joyce Rupp shares the lessons her mother taught her, especially to "fly while you still have wings." As a poor farmer's wife and the mother of eight living on rented land in Maryhill, Iowa, Hilda lived a life with hard labor and constant responsibility-from milking cows and raising chickens to keeping the farm's financial ledger. Rupp shows how the difficulties of her mother's early years and family life, including the loss of a twenty-three-year-old son, forged a resilience that guided her through the illnesses and losses she faced later on. This affectionate profile of their relationship is, at the same time, an honest self-examination as Rupp shares the ways she failed to listen to, accept, and understand her mother in her final years. Rupp begins each chapter with a meditative poem that captures the essence of each stage in the journey. Her unfailing candor and profound faith illumine this story of a mother and daughter with a universal spirit of hope, reconciliation, and peace. Readers who care for the elderly will identify with the joys and sorrows that Rupp experienced. Likewise, those who are grieving for a parent will find an open and sensitive portrayal of the conflicting emotions that arise in the process of letting go. Anyone approaching their elder years will discover a model of how to enter the aging process with dignity and honesty that accepts the
