Finding Ruth: A Daughter’s Quest to Discover Her Mother’s Past by Cynthia Hamilton – Review by Jennifer Gordon

Finding Ruth by Cynthia Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, this was an emotional read made even more poignant by the fact that it is written by the author, Cynthia who is Ruth’s daughter. Part memoir and part fictionalised biography, ‘Finding Ruth’ tells the story of Ruth’s life. Ruth was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and so was unable to provide any insight into her life before she became ‘Mom’, and so the author literally turned detective to discover what her mothers life had been like before, as Cynthia says, “Alzheimer’s stole her memories”.
The author begins the book by explaining how she came to write this novel and it was all down to the discovery of the eye catching photograph of Ruth taken in 1949 which is on the front cover of the book. The author had never seen this photo before and it only came to light as she was going through her mother’s possessions prior to her moving into a skilled nursing facility. This beautiful photo of a very glamorous looking young Ruth got her daughter thinking how little she knew of her mother’s life and being an author she did was she does best and put pen to paper to fill in the missing memories. The photograph had me intrigued before I had even opened the book and then once I began reading Ruth and Cynthia’s story I was hooked from beginning to the very last page.
You can tell how much research has gone into this book, in reconstructing her mother’s life the author looked at photos, letters, public records and firsthand memories but you can also feel how much love and emotion has gone into this original and unique story. Ruth’s life reads as a novel, having dealt with ill fated relationships, heartbreak and also high points in her life. Remembering that the main character, Ruth, is actually a real person just makes the story all that more remarkable as is the women herself. As her daughter writes, Ruth always stayed strong and survived what ever life through at her even Alzheimer’s. The book covers sixty years of a life well lived and not only is it a wonderful story and a fitting memoir but both the reader and the author gain a much better understanding of Ruth herself.
This is a heartwarming read and I recommend you have a box of tissues handy, but it is also inspirational and empowering and I can not recommend it highly enough.

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