Mémère

As a new writer with only one novel to her credit, Rebecca agrees to her grandmother’s dying wish: tell her life story. Rebecca has been asked to sit at her grandmother’s bedside and listen to her grandmother’s life story in full. When she is done she will have enough material to create a new novel to share with the world. Rebecca knows this story well. This is the story of her grandmother who she calls Mémère. Mémère is a woman who came from a big family who survived the Second World War while her husband fought overseas. She was a business woman owning a small rental unit where she lived on her own. She had challenges but the story has a beautiful ending with her grandmother finding herself again and settling down in a rural area with peace in her heart. The story is simple and easy to write and sounds like a nice way to connect to her grandmother; but as the story unfolds, Rebecca comes to the realisation that the grandmother she knew and the one that is telling her life story are two completely different people. With each passing visit Rebecca learns new information forcing her to look at her grandmother’s life in a new way. There is no going back after what she has learned; her grandmother is not the hero, but rather the villain in her story.