Reviewed by Lorraine Cobcroft for Readers' Favorite

Mary Jo Doig is a strong and brave woman. Her memoir, Patchwork, A Memoir of Love and Loss, is a testament to her strength and courage. Patchwork is more an autobiography than a memoir. It encompasses her entire life from birth to nearly sixty years of age. As Mary Jo tells us of her early years, she impresses with her memory of detail, and she exposes the emotional trauma of always thinking she was bad. Moving on through an unplanned pregnancy, dropping out of college to marry, and the tragic loss of her first child, Mary Jo struggles with her low self-esteem and an increasingly difficult relationship with her husband. Facing one major challenge after another, she battles to be the mother she wishes she’d had and to find some kind of personal fulfillment and security. Life just keeps throwing curve balls, but loving help and support come from unexpected places, seemingly in times of greatest need. Mary Jo acknowledges the people who helped her through her toughest days by stitching hearts onto a special patchwork quilt that symbolizes the author’s Patchwork life.

Ultimately, Mary Jo Doig finds peace and contentment in a loving relationship and community. But the peace and happiness does not last. A mid-life event shatters her world and brings Mary Jo face to face with memories of trauma more horrific than anything most readers could ever contemplate. Can she ever work through this and move on? In Patchwork, she shows us how she learned to deal with her traumatic past, to cope with the demands of marriage, family, and work while struggling to heal, and to resolve her relationships with her parents whose own challenges rendered them incapable of protecting her. Mary Jo references texts she read seeking wisdom and quotes specific advice that may be useful to a reader who suffered similar trauma in childhood. In a memoir filled with vivid word pictures and sensory images, painting settings where the beauty of nature nurtures the broken soul, Mary Jo shows us how her strength and resilience carried her through the darkness and into the light. Patchwork may well give readers the strength and the knowledge they need to find their way through their dark days. It certainly reassures us all of the astonishing strength of the human spirit.