A Motherly Daughter
Imagine a child that grew up and had to deal with life changing circumstances like the illness of one of their parents. The lessons learned from these difficult experiences would make that child a stronger, more mature person. The child could make new friends and triumph in spite of extreme adversity. In the novel Daughter, by Ishbel Moore, the main character named Sylvie Marchione learns life changing lessons from her mother’s illness.
Life was not easy for Sylvie when her mother got diagnosed with her illness. Sylvie was a fourteen-year-old teenaged girl that lived in Canada with her divorced mother, Marianne. Her short black hair fell right below her ears. She was a straight-A student and a very talented pianist. She had made changes about her appearance because she did not think that her mother would notice. She started to wear bright red lipstick and tight, inappropriate clothing. She always wore her favorite denim jacket. The popular kids started becoming friends with her and invited her to parties, and her best friend Marissa started thinking that she was trying to defriend her. Sylvie was just trying to fit in because she knew that her life was different. She ended up having to take care of her mother. According to Sylvie, she was “a teenage mother with a grown-up baby” (116). She was a smart and responsible girl that cared for her mother.
After her parents’ divorce, Sylvie’s mom had been acting strange and unusual. Marianne’s abnormal behavior started to change Sylvie’s life. When Sylvie came home after school one day, she saw her mom on the balcony with one foot on the railing and the other foot on the top step of the stepladder. Her mom’s hand was holding on to a hanging basket that was barely screwed in. Marianne swore that she was enjoying the view from the tenth floor of the apartment building, but Sylvie claimed that her mother was about to jump off the balcony and kill herself. Sylvie also caught her mother trying to boil an electric kettle on the stove. She had to watch her mother’s every move and take her to the hospital. Her mother had forgotten so many things. She even forgot Sylvie’s name. Sylvie’s father, Valentino, had been making visits, and her neighbor, Mrs. Rathbone, had also been helping her out. Sylvie had to childproof her apartment for her mother’s sake. The doctors told her that her mother had the Alzheimer disease. Sylvie could not believe that because she thought that Alzheimer was only for old people. She had been so focused on her mother’s illness that she let her grades drop. She also got in a fight with her best friend. Sylvie met the new kid in her class named Ryan Kostelniuk. He was a cousin of one of the popular kids. Ryan was a straight-A student, and Sylvie had a crush on him. Ryan knew what was wrong with Sylvie’s mom because she showed the same symptoms as his grandmother with Alzheimer’s. Ryan told Sylvie, “It’s not just old people who get Alzheimer” (91). He also told her that his parents will always be there to help her out when she needs it. Meeting Ryan had been one of the life-changing events in Sylvie’s life.
Sylvie learned a lot of life lessons from her mother’s illness. She learned to appreciate her mother for trying to always be there for her, and she gained strength from all of the things she had done. Her mother’s sickness inspired her to do better. She stopped fighting with Marissa, and they remained best friends. She brought her grades back up and won a scholarship for math at her 8th grade graduation. Her parents were very proud of her, but her mother had to be hospitalized. Sylvie had to live with her dad, and she was only allowed to visit her mom occasionally. She had to say goodbye to her mother and keep the memory. She told herself, “I guess I’ve got to grow up” (215).
Life can change abruptly, so Sylvie had to live it the best that she could. Sylvie did not realize how fortunate she was until her mother had to go. Her mother had changed her outlook on life. Her heroic efforts to overcome the unfortunate and tough challenges she faced while dealing with illness, divorce, and friendships inspire the reader to become stronger and grow up with her. In Daughter, by Ishbel Moore, Sylvie Marchione will never forget how her mother had influenced and affected her life.
