PJ: Part of our yearning for home is is our yearning for childhood. JL: I love this line, “They say you can never go back, but the people who say that haven’t seen this house.” Can you ever leave home psychologically? Your family home has been sold, and some time has passed since writing this book.
It was a profoundly healing experience we have a great relationship now. Mum was hiding in that rubble, and writing the book brought her back inside me. It was like we were throwing away the whole of the 20 th Century, and I thought, wow … Everybody’s doing this! Why isn’t anybody writing about it? It took about nine months to compile the stories and another two years to edit. Then one day I hauled some things to the thrift store and saw that it was piled high with stuff like Mum’s. I never intended to write a book, but I jotted down things for my grandchildren. Every item triggered a memory –touch, sounds, sights, smells, especially Mum’s perfume. PJ: Memories came unbidden as I cleared out Mum’s house. JL: Was it hard or healing to revisit old memories? If you have questions, she’ll be hanging out with us in the comments field and is happy to answer your questions. I asked Plum some questions about her book. She focuses particularly on her often contentious relationship with her mother, who was a larger-than-life Southern belle.
As she sorts through her parents’ belongings, she explores the idea of family legacy, validity of memory and how much influence our family has on who we are as adults. In this award-winning book (that would make an amazing film à la The Family Stone), Johnson chronicles the process of caring for elderly parents, and emptying and selling the family home. I’m excited about Plum Johnson’s They Left Us Everything, our next 1010 Park Place Book Club choice. I hope you loved it as much as I did.
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