This week's TowleREAD comes from author Bob Morris from his new memoir Bobby Wonderful: An Imperfect Son Buries His Parents.
Morris tells Towleroad:
As a gay man who doesn't have children, my relationship to my parents always felt especially primary and profound. To deal with some of this I started MuseumofYourParents because I still had stuff from their house that resonated and radiated like plutonium. I also couldn't shake the scenes in my head around the last months of their lives. That's why I wrote this memoir about the end of the people who gave me my beginning. Well over 75 million baby boomers are facing the deaths of parents right now and my hope is that this little book about a big thing that happens to all of us will provide some laughs, perspective and inspiration.
We struggle to give our parents the best deaths possible, even when we have no idea what that means. For me, I think the best death possible has something to do with finding what's good in the experience, what's meaningful, and yes even funny. Death, I came to know as my brother and I watches our parents die, is as much for the living as it is for the dead. And when you aren't drowning in the details of caregiving or your sadness, it is also an opportunity.
Morris is the author of Crispin the Terrible and Assisted Loving, which received honors from the American Library Association, Lambda Literary Awards and was a New York Times editor's choice. A frequent contributor to the Times, he has also been a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered and has written for the The Southampton Review, Elle, the New Yorker, Town and Country and other publications. His comic plays have been produced off Broadway and he collaborated with actress Diahann Carroll on her award-winning memoir, The Legs Are the Last to Go. He is a graduate of Brown University and has a masters in creative writing from Stony Brook Southampton. He lives with his husband, Ira and their dog Zoloft in Manhattan and Bellport, NY.
As part of its sponsorship of TowleREAD, Audible is offering a free download of Bobby Wonderful at Audible.com with a 30-Day Trial membership for Towleroad readers.
Listen, below:
Bob Morris photo: Lena Shikoda