Everything Left to Remember

My Mother, Our Memories, and a Journey Through the Rocky Mountains

By: Steph Jagger

Narrated by: Andi Arndt

Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS meets WILD. In this heart-wrenching and inspirational memoir a woman and her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, embark on a road trip through national parks, revisiting the memories, and the mountains, that made them who they are.

Steph Jagger lost her mother before she lost her. Her mother, stricken with an incurable disease that slowly erases all sense of self, struggles to remember her favorite drink, her favorite song, and—perhaps most heartbreaking of all—Steph herself. Steph watches as the woman who loved and raised her slips away before getting the chance to tell her story, and so Steph makes a promise: her mother will walk it, and she will write it.

Too aware of her mother’s waning memory, Steph proposes that the two take a camping trip out to Montana—which her mother, on the urging of Steph’s father, agrees to embark upon. An adventure full of horseback riding, hiking, and “tenting” out West quickly turns into one woman’s reflection on childhood, motherhood, personhood—and what it means to love someone who doesn’t quite remember the person she spent her lifetime becoming.

A staggeringly beautiful examination of how stories are passed down through generations and from Mother Nature, Everything Left to Remember brings us the wisdom of who our memories make us under the constellations of the vast Montana sky.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

©2022 Steph Jagger (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Too slow

I wanted to love this book but it was just too slow & drawn out for me.

Just what I needed

As someone who’s also losing their mother to dementia this story was beautiful and painful all at once. Hearing her grieving process has helped me so much in starting to unpack my own feelings of sadness anger and joyful memories. Wonderful read.

So beautiful!! Found Solace

The writing was incredibly poetic. Going through the process of losing my own mother, this really helped me find nuggets of gold to cling onto and find solace in the darkness. Such a beautiful story and writing!

Cover to cover in one sitting.

there are very few titles that grab on to me like this one did. it touched me in so many ways after losing my mother to Parkinson's/ Lewy body dementia. narrating as inner thoughts/questions that are so deeply touching and guaranteed connections to any daughter mother danced into full maturity. every chapter has nuggets of connective healing I will cherish.

Beautifully written

As a social worker who has worked with families dealing with Alzheimer’s - I have seen the devastation of this disease up close - but to hear Stephanie’s words and thoughts are a beautiful and breathtaking look at how a person/family watches their loved one slip away. She weaves nature, memories, and complex family dynamics into her story with a seamless prose and vivid descriptions. I loved every chapter.

A gorgeous remembrance of maternal lineage

A poetic, poignant and beautiful memoir that captures the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s and the majesty of the Rockies. Having needed to let go of my own mother in physical form, I related so deeply to the author and her internal reckoning. I look forward to reading Steph’s earlier book and whatever she writes next.