Farrago, from the Latin farragin, is a word that means a confused mixture. This memoir, sharing the story of the relationship between author Diana B. Roberts and her mother, Markie, is just that-a farrago, containing neither positive nor negative judgment.

Markie Byron Roberts was eighty-five years old when she passed away-a long life for anyone, but particularly for a woman who'd been institutionalized for mental illness six times, beginning at age sixteen, and who had been unwillingly subjected to thirty-six shock therapy treatments. Through mental and physical illness, on her death...

Farrago, from the Latin farragin, is a word that means a confused mixture. This memoir, sharing the story of the relationship between author Diana B. Roberts and her mother, Markie, is just that-a farrago, containing neither positive nor negative judgment.

Markie Byron Roberts was eighty-five years old when she passed away-a long life for anyone, but particularly for a woman who'd been institutionalized for mental illness six times, beginning at age sixteen, and who had been unwillingly subjected to thirty-six shock therapy treatments. Through mental and physical illness, on her death...