I Was Not Prepared

You will not be prepared for this heart breaking true story describing the events that befell a young farming family in rural Quebec, Canada. At twelve-years of age, a girl was torn from her school and her friends to care for her mother then yet undiagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The book takes you through the years of transformation of the author as a young girl into a child carer, to this present day. If you want to know more about the impact of illness in your family it is the book for you. You will be transported to a country far away where the winter is brutal, but fun, for a child growing up in the early 1960s. The story provides you with the sense of the energy necessary to survive and the determination she builds through the death of her mother that somehow defines her. This is a very intimate look at the path this young girl takes and you will be moved to tears feeling her ups and down. The story explores the resilience of a child growing up from age 12 through to 18 years old during the difficult time of caring for her mother during onset of her mother's illness and her subsequent death 5 years later of ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease. The reader gains an insight from first-hand experience about what it is to be a carer and the consequences. We live in a society that is increasingly dependent on young carers – we are giving birth to children at older and older ages. Through this book there is hope that a greater understanding of what we are asking child carers to do and how to ensure they become fully developed and functional adults.