Dot Ainsworth Day

Dot draws on her careers as an English teacher and as a family therapist in writing her memoir/family history.

Dot Ainsworth Day's memoir/family history was written to honor her parents' memory and to show a time when survival was not a reality game but was a real struggle. Of their eight living children. the five surviving siblings shared many of the funny stories and memories of what their parents taught or told them. They were stoical and proud and pushed their children to educate ourselves so that their lives would not include physical labor for livelihood.

Part of the story is true to form in looking at a nonChristlike father's influence. He worked hard and pushed them hard, but addictions helped some of the eight cope with pain. Mama's comfort for her family dysfunction was food. The overall tone is light while telling the stories with a hint of sad judgment for those children and grandchildren who gave in to addiction--a sense of "Such a waste" and the unanswered question of "Why didn't you fight?"