That Went Well: Adventures in Caring For My Sister

That Went Well: Adventures in Caring For My Sister
(New Author Challenge)

Terrell Harris Dougan

4 out of 5

In this memoir, Terrell tells of the caring of her sister Irene that was born brain damaged due to the cutting off of oxygen at birth. Her family, in the 1940’s, were told to institutionalize Irene, but they just could not do that. She was family, and family takes care of family. Though dad is nearly deaf, mom was stricken with Rheumatory arthritis at the age of 18 and a feisty grandma all under one roof they take on the job of caring for Irene. Though Irene doesn’t always want to be part of it with her biting, hitting, manipulating and last but not least her ability to throw anything not nailed down, including a couch, across the room.

This journey to help Irene leads to many national organizations and laws that have helped countless families that thought they had no where to turn. With humor and patients they have helped Irene to live a relatively self-sufficient independent life; and after 60 years of trying to make things all better for Irene and the people around her, Terrell has finally learned that she can’t fix it all and sometimes things just have to take care of themselves.