We You Me

Book excerpt: After years of caring for her family, author Laura Ruth Ellis finally felt free to pursue a new life purpose. Almost immediately, however, she was pulled back into the role of dutiful daughter when her mother succumbed to dementia. The years she spent as full-time caregiver were stressful and exhausting—but from the fears and challenges came the transformation she had sought all along. In We You Me, Laura recalls from her journal entries the emotional turmoil the caregiver role brought to her and the lessons it taught her. With intimacy and honesty, she recounts the stresses, strains, and shame she endured along the way. As the years went on, a change began; she moved from denying life’s circumstances to accepting life as it comes, eventually gaining an awareness of life’s bigger picture in the process. Her focus shifted from duty to others with love to love of duty to her inner self. Life presented the role she needed to finally find and accept who she most wanted to be and her buried dream was released. This personal narrative presents a journey of acceptance through the realms of caregiving toward true self-knowledge, as one woman’s dream deferred for duty is brought to life.