Tea Leaves: a memoir of mothers and daughters was inspired by those pictured above (left to right) my great grandmother Martha Washington Gadsby, my grandmother Ethelind Elizabeth Gadsby (later Wood and then Bell) and my mother (Sarah) Jane Mason, and my father, Albert Mason.

Tea Leaves: a memoir of mothers and daughters is multi-layered and has a backdrop in the U.S. labor movement. The narrator's grandmother was a spinner in a textile factory, the mother an office worker, and the narrator, the first to be graduated from college, tells their story as well as her own.

How I survived my mother's death:
m"Violin lessons"--(Chapter 6 of Tea Leaves)--published by Telling Moments, University of Wisconsin Press. click here

Excerpts from the first chapter of Tea Leaves...click and read...

Excerpt of Tea Leaves published in The Advocate...click and read...

Read the entire Epilogue of Tea Leaves ... click and read
Five years later, tears still come to my eyes when I think about my mother's death. I could not replace my final memories of her with a previous, healthy image until at least a year after she had died. During this time, I asked myself over and over why I waited....click here