In Her Wake

In this title, a psychiatrist illuminates the untimely loss of her mother, revealing what it can teach us about trauma, memory, and family secrets. In 1963, Nancy Rappaport's mother committed suicide after a bitter divorce and public custody battle. Nancy was four years old and her five siblings wer [...]
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In this title, a psychiatrist illuminates the untimely loss of her mother, revealing what it can teach us about trauma, memory, and family secrets. In 1963, Nancy Rappaport's mother committed suicide after a bitter divorce and public custody battle. Nancy was four years old and her five siblings were all between the ages of five and ten at the time. Nancy's father remarried after his wife's death, and welcomed his new wife's three children. They had two more children together. As one of eleven children in a prominent family in Boston, young Nancy struggled to find her place in the world and come to terms with the reasons why her mother took her own life. After years spent interviewing family members and old friends of her mother's, Rappaport uncovers the story of an education activist, socialite, and community leader who was incredibly troubled and conflicted. Drawing on court depositions, her mother's unpublished novel, newspaper coverage, and her own experiences and analysis, Rappaport highlights humorous and heartbreaking stories of a complicated life with deep insight into this tragic tale of a family suicide that played out in Boston's press.Nancy Rappaport, who went on to become a child and adolescent psychiatrist, weaves in her own story of loss and recovery into this beautifully written memoir, illuminating what it can teach us about recaptured memories and the ways in which young people deal with traumatic events. She examines the impact of her mother's suicide from the perspective of a daughter, psychiatrist - and mother of three. Rappaport passes her story from one generation to the next, reflecting on divorce, healing, memory, and family along the way.