Scourged A Memoir [Paperback]

Beginning in the 60's, the tandem narrative unravels the memories of life in a small Irish town - narrated by the Scourge of the title - Me - and my Mother - in a series of flashbacks. It comprises sections of black comedy, nostalgia, memories and epiphanies - that document the personalities, history, and archive of an ordinary family, who through the bastard of disease that the Scourge calls death by a thousand cuts becomes cathartic, redemptive, and ultimately uplifting, as we become extraordinary in our ability to cope. It also shines a light on an illness that is rarely discussed in this detail. Written over 4 years, Scourged takes the reader on a journey from early diagnosis, the stages as the patient declines, the family's implosion, the morphing of the Scourge from wide eyed child into Enfant Terrible - then through obese depressed recluse, morphing into the creator of Shellshock  One Woman shows . Siobh?n has always been my inspiration. The first thing I ever wrote about Siobh?n was a short story called Mothers Day and following her hospital admission, a play called Brigids Women - named for the ward Siobh?n spent 7 months in. After a decade of dementia, 6 years of which were spent in a small room in a Nursing Home, and after bravery that was described by medical personnel as heroic and humbling Siobh?n was called home during a hurricane on the last day of winter, St Brigids Day. Her Months Mind Mass was held 7 weeks later, on Mothers Day. The book has been called groundbreaking and remarkable by a readers panel. I feel my Mother has helped me write it, and that I have given her back her voice, which was sadly silenced, and also given her back her place in the world, which she longed to see. I will use her own artwork - which she painted as a child- on the cover, with her signature.