A curated collection of books and other resources can be found at both branches of Mississippi Mills Public Library. Some of our members are going to be reading and reviewing these books, and we will publish those reviews the first Wednesday of each month.
Our reviewer this month is Past Chair, Nancy Deschênes
Flee, Fly, Flown by Janet Hepburn
This is a very insightful read about Lillian and Audrey, residents in an Ottawa nursing home, who plan to “Flee the Coop.”
They both have dementia, but have moments of lucidity that allows them to successfully plan an escape from the boring routine and humiliation of nursing home life.
They “borrow” a car Audrey once owned; she had retained a set of keys.
Because of their memory loss and sometimes confusion, they enroll unsuspecting, young, homeless Rayne to drive them west. They want to see the mountains and he wants to reconcile with his father in B.C.
Their adventures are entertaining and endearing — they Fly. For a while they had taken back some control that time and dementia had stolen from them.
They managed to see the mountains before they were returned home. They had Flown.
This writer experienced ten years with her mother’s Alzheimer’s and her empathy and heart shows in her writing. A MUST READ!