No More Words: A Journal of My Mother, Anne Morrow Lindbergh

This is Reeve Lindbergh's memoir of the last few years of her mother’s life, leading up to her death. She details both good and bad days along with the tremendous efforts that the family and friends undertook to ensure that Anne Morrow Lindbergh could remain in her cottage near Reeve, even after a series of strokes that robbed her of most of her strength and most of her ability to communicate. Even through the hard times, Reeve can appreciate her mother’s gifts and feels both sadness and love through the ups and downs of her decline. But she also shares her frustrations and anger with the reader, something that anyone experiencing end of life caregiving could appreciate.

"No More Words" is a poignant and touching story of a daughter and her love for her mother. Reeve Lindbergh, the daughter of Ann Morrow Lindbergh portrays the last seventeen months of her mother's life written in a journalistic style and used many excerpts from her mother's books. This touching story portrays Reeve's love for her mother, as she shows the joys and sadness of spending precious time with her before her passing. These months, chronicled by Reeve shows how difficult it is to watch a loved one die. Ann's tenacity kept her alive beyond anyone's expectations and Reeve was fortunate to spend precious time with her, sharing thoughts, dreams and confidences. Though there were times when Ann could not speak due to the many strokes she had suffered, the two were able to communicate beyond words.Ann was able to remain in at home with caregivers attending to her around the clock. Those caregivers were loving and patient, and had their own special relationship with her, each one have intense respect, tenderness and love for her. The way Reeve describes these caregivers brings a tear to the reader's eye and shows how blessed Ann was to have these gentle and caring people to aid her through her last months. Reeve's account also portrays the Lindbergh's as a loving and caring family who have not been "harmed" by their celebrity. Each sibling with their own separateness held great love for their mother shown in many ways.The most touching aspect of this book is the love Reeve held for her mother. Though Ann was more often silent or unable to respond verbally to Reeve, the two shared an unspoken bond no one could break. This is a must read for anyone facing or who has faced the death of a loved one, for it offers comfort and consolation. It shows death need not be a fearful or heartrending experience, but a natural part of life.Having an elderly mother whom I love dearly, this account made me realize that one cannot hang on to a loved one forever, but shows that even when the loved one is gone, their spirit and love lives on, and our bond with them can never be broken. It is truly a "feel good" tale.

An honest, sad, courageous and at times funny book. Reeve Lindbergh is caring for her once-famous mother Anne Morrow Lindbergh, now suffering from Alzheimer's and rarely speaking coherently - hence the title. Anne was a writer and a poet, and by virtue of her marriage to Charles Lindbergh, also a pioneering flyer. Reeve, the youngest of Charles and Anne's five children, is also a talented writer and her story is competently and at times beautifully written. The mother-daughter relationship is now reversed, and Reeve is the carer, but there is no self-pity in the book. Anne is dying, Reeve loves her but at times wishes she would just get on with it, so she and her husband can go back to their own lives.Anne Morrow has written and been written about extensively, and parts of her diaries have been published. This account of the last part of her life closes a chapter in the Lindbergh saga. But it is also Reeve's story, about life with her husband on a farm in New England. The book is full of wry humor: at one point, Reeve's husband announces that they are selling a pig to someone called Bill Yates. Reeve thinks for a moment that it is Bill Gates, and comments dryly that she would not advise pig-farming as his next career move.The book should be read by anyone interested in the Lindberghs, but may have a special appeal to those who have cared for an elderly and dying parent.

Notwithstanding my gargantuan disappointment in realising that author Reeve Lindbergh embodies absolutely zero of the strong mental qualities of her great heroic father Charles Lindbergh, notwithstanding my gargantuan disappointment in learning that Reeve Lindbergh believes her father to have been an "isolationist" versus the reality of his state of being the original America First great rally organizer whilst fiercely opposing FDR and entry into World War II for rational reasons of it being an unnecessary evil, notwithstanding my gargantuan disappointment in realising that Reeve Lindbergh lives a shallow and pretentious northeastern lifestyle on the coattails of her mother's lineage and father's money in a very likeness to the Kennedys, I say this book is a lovely account of a daughter processing the death of her mother.

I felt a connection with this family as we has a similar experience with our beloved mother who left us aged 93 years. She was our treasure too.