Winner of the 2015 RBC Taylor Prize
Winner of the 2016 Forest of Reading® Evergreen Award™ 
After almost twenty years of caring for elderly parents—first for their senile father,  and then for their cantankerous ninety-three-year-old mother—author Plum Johnson  and her three younger brothers experience conflicted feelings of grief and relief when  their mother, the surviving parent, dies. Now they must empty and sell the beloved  family home, which hasn’t been de-cluttered in more than half a century. Twenty-three  rooms bulge with history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum remembers her loving  but difficult parents who could not have been more different: the British father, a  handsome, disciplined patriarch who nonetheless could not control his opinionated,  extroverted Southern-belle wife who loved tennis and gin gimlets. The task consumes  her, becoming more rewarding than she ever imagined. Items from childhood trigger  memories of her eccentric family growing up in a small town on the shores of Lake  Ontario in the 1950s and 60s. But unearthing new facts about her parents helps her  reconcile those relationships with a more accepting perspective about who they were  and what they valued.

 

They Left Us Everything is a funny, touching memoir about the importance of preserving  family history to make sense of the past and nurturing family bonds to safeguard the  future.

Plum Johnson's profile page

• Winner, OLA Evergreen Award
• Winner, RBC Taylor Prize

Plum Johnson is an award-winning author, artist and entrepreneur living in Toronto. She was the founder of KidsCanada Publishing Corp., publisher of KidsToronto, and co-founder of Help’s Here! resource magazine for seniors and caregivers.

Praise for They Left Us Everything
“[They Left Us Everything] is the kind of slim, unassuming memoir that hits you deep in the gut . . . Amid the scraps of paper left in jacket pockets, family photos and pieces of furniture, part of the “everything” our parents leave us with are our memories of them, good and bad.  Perhaps figuring out what to do with them is as close to a manual for grief as we get.”—National Post
“Johnson writes with clarity, wit and a powerful descriptive voice that makes the rambling family home she moves back into for 16 weeks a character in itself.”—NOW Toronto
“A fascinating and delightful story – a satisfying and thought-provoking book.”—The Parry Sound North Star
“Each word of They Left Us Everything is heartfelt and moving. We are privy to Johnson’s emotional journey to the point that it feels like she is part of our own family. Her story lingers inside, touching the soul.”—newz4u.net
“At times heartbreaking and at others hysterically funny . . . the book’s descriptive prose brings [the] places and people to life and poignantly conveys the quasi-spiritual journey that helps Johnson overcome her grief.”—Publishers Weekly
“[Johnson] takes you along on a journey that is emotional, humorous, and candid.”—Newstalk 1010

Wonderful memoir.

by Judy Bullis

They Left us Everything by Plum Johnson is a wonderful story about a woman who travels through her past as she sorts through the contents of the family home her parents left their children. What she thought would be a matter of weeks takes significantly longer as each item is wrapped with memories of both family and historical value. Hard to make decisions about what to keep and what must go.
Throughout, Ms. Johnson takes the reader on the journey with her. I laughed, I cried, and felt connected to her at almost every moment.
Inevitably we will or have faced what she so adeptly details...life's losses, its wins, and the cherished memories that accompany us along the way...all too often forgotten as we live it but remembered when sometimes it's too late.
I loved this book. Highly recommend it. And...was thrilled to hear it's been short-listed for the RBC Taylor Prize.