Advocacy

Heather Menzies speaks at Occupy Ottawa about the White Poppy on November 12, 2011.

Remember Peace? The White Poppy. Heather Menzies at the Kingston, Ontario, Public Library, November 9, 2011. Event sponsored by the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, justice, peace and integrity of creation office and the Kingston Society of Friends (Quakers). Heather contributed 50 homemade white poppies and raised $95 in donations to support the healing of female child soldiers in Africa.

"No more war," said Heather Menzies at a White Poppy ceremony at the Ottawa Cenotaph on November 11, 2011. See the Youtube video.

"Patient-centred care: It's about relationships" writes Heather Menzies in a Globe and Mail opinion article published on July 13, 2011.

Read Heather Menzies' latest book

What readers are saying about Enter Mourning: "It has broken my heart and made my heart sing at the same time." "The author is a talented and gifted writer who provides the reader with an inside look at a very personal, challenging and rewarding journey." "Heather Menzies's chronicle of her own coming to terms with her mother's dementia is a very personal and complex story that reveals as much about her own struggles to cope with her busy life as about the need to constantly reassess her relationship with her mother and her four siblings."

How to Order

Since the closure of Key Porter Books, copies of Enter Mourning are available through Ottawa online bookseller, David J. Craig.
Order a copy today.

Enter Mourning may also be available through McNally Robinson, Chapters Indigo and Amazon, as supplies last.

Reviews and Honours

The Globe and Mail newspaper included Enter Mourning in its annual "100 of the Best Books" in 2009.

"When the child becomes the parent." Enter Mourning reviewed by Paula Todd in The Globe and Mail Saturday Books section on June 12, 2009. Read the review.

"Caring for aging Mom transforms dutiful daughter." Review by Judy Steed in The Toronto Star on May 16, 2009. Read the review.

Speaker

Heather Menzies is available for speaking engagements on the themes of Enter Mourning: A Memoir on Death, Dementia and Coming Home as well as those of previous books.

Speech to the British Columbia Nurses' Union 2011 Annual General Meeting on May 4, 2011. Read speech.

Testimonial:

“The entire audience at the Alzheimer Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County’s seminar “STOP The Rising Tide of Dementia” listened intently to Heather Menzies as she spoke about the social impact of dementia. The power of her presentation was drawn from her own personal perspective as a daughter whose mother had Alzheimer’s disease. She was brave in sharing the feelings of denial, resentment, and guilt that she had as barriers to action before facing the reality of what was happening to her mother so she could really be there for her mother. Heather was inspirational in encouraging families and those who work in dementia care to take action now in order to slow down and stop the crippling effect of Alzheimer’s disease on families. Boomer-aged children, the bulk of the caregivers already providing care to aging parents with Alzheimer’s disease, looks to be the ones to provide even more of the care as the demand for publicly funded services far outstrips the supply.”

- Kathy Wright, Executive Director, Alzheimer Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County

Heather Menzies speaks at End of Life Care of the Older Adult with Dementia event

Heather Menzies spoke at the 2nd annual End of Life Care of the Older Adult with Dementia even on May 6, 2010. The response was positive: 85% of attendees evaluated her speech as good to excellent. Comments included:

"My favourite talk; greatly appreciate the sharing of Heather's personal journey. Very powerful."

"Great spiritual speaker and great insight to view as of care to end of life scenaries."

"She really was excellent."

"A wonderful first hand look at dying gracefully."

"Good to have personal experiences about taking care of someone with dementia and how the health care staff could improve and how families can help."

"Personal story very powerful."

"Thank you for sharing."

	“Mum opened her eyes and looked at me in the searching way I’d grown used to. By then I had come to believe that as words had lost their meaning, she relied more and more on body language, the steadiness of my gaze and the cadences of my voice, the basic alphabet of love. She heard at a level that I was unaware of, trust making up, perhaps, for cognition.”

Excerpts of

Enter Mourning

At some point, taking care of my aging mother stopped being an imposition, or even a series of tasks I managed with some semblance of grace, and became an experience that changed my life. It opened me not just to the unknown but to unknowing as a way of living, simultaneously letting go and letting in. I learned to give myself over to the crumbling and ebbing away of life and in doing this, discovered how it flows from the tangible, the articulate and the comprehensible to the intangible and the inscrutable. In the end, it’s almost entirely an act of faith, or so it seemed to be to me. …

Read more

Read reviews of the book

Reader responses

HEATHER MENZIES RECEIVES HONOURARY DOCTORATE FROM CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY IN MONTREAL

Click here to read the citation from Concordia University.

Click here to read Heather's speaking notes in accepting the degree.

MENZIES WINS BOOK AWARD FOR CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NO TIME

Heather Menzies, a writer, academic and social activist, has won the non-fiction category in the annual OttawaBook Award with a look at how our lives are swamped by high-tech stress.

In an interview yesterday, Menzies said she was gratified with all the positive attention lavished on the book and noted that working on the project taught her lessons about slowing down.

"Yesterday I played hookey and went for a canoe ride"- from Ottawa Citizen article by Paul Gessell, 05/26/06

"A Globe and Mail top 100" book for 2005

Winner of the Ottawa Book Award (non-fiction) in 2006

Hear an inteview with Heather about NO TIME