Publications
My Mother's Story: Gone Too Soon (2022)
Discover the powerful connection between storytelling and healing. Michelle Hohn, Registered Therapeutic Counsellor, partners with the Mothership Stories Society to present this third book in the My Mother’s Story storytelling series.
Gone Too Soon is a courageous collection written by adults who experienced the loss of their mother in childhood or adolescence – offering the rich, lived experiences of twenty mothers and their twenty bereaved children—eighteen women and two men—residing in four nations around the globe (Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea).
Both heartbreaking and hopeful, these stories and author reflections are about far more than mothers and loss, and present readers with an array of experiences, revealing the history of women and all that they experienced or endured–their values, choices, happiness, fulfillment, and opportunities, as well as their challenges, moments of quiet desperation, and defeats along the way. Authors traverse difficult emotional terrain together on their individual paths while collectively transforming the narrative from feeling a mother’s absence to finding her presence.
Gone Too Soon combines the power of storytelling with individual paths of self-discovery and healing, and demonstrates how this specific technique can be harnessed to lead to an increased sense of belonging, connection, and resilience for adults bereaved in childhood.
Experience the transformative healing power of honouring mothers and celebrating these ordinary women for the extraordinary lives they lived – albeit far too brief.
Gone Too Soon was released on April 5, 2022 and was a #1 Amazon Canada Bestseller in all three of its book categories: Grief and Bereavement, the Sociology of Death, and Women’s Biographies.
Contributing Authors: Linda Higgins, Susan Teresa Bocchinfuso, Tamara Mercer, Susan Henderson Frank, Colleen Winton, Jin Beom Synn, Kathryn Lannan, Sydell Weiner, Christine Norris, Jennifer Juniper Angeli, Janyne Sinclaire, James Edgington, Soma Keo, Kelsey Weaver, Mandy Gosling, Colleen Rhodes, Jennifer Burgie, Shenan Smith, Amanda McNally, and Michelle Hohn.
PRAISE FOR GONE TOO SOON
“The stories in this book… remind us of the power of a loss and how even after many years, memories and stories are an important aspect of remembering and grieving.”
— Suzannah Phillips, Associate Director, Winston’s Wish
“These authors have beautifully captured the essence of their mothers…”
— Devony Baugh, Registered Clinical Counsellor, Vancouver, Canada
“… bringing adult perspectives and wisdom to the indelible experience of early mother loss.”
— Kathleen Adams LPC, PJTR, Registered Poetry and Journal Therapist, The Center for Journal Therapy
“…the insights offered are applicable to the experience of loss and grief for anyone at any age and offers a healing tool for all.”
— Amy Liebman Rapp, M.S.Ed.,CT, Childhood Bereavement & Youth Development Authority
GONE TOO SOON – SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Gone Too Soon has been included in the recommended reading section of the Canadian Virtual Hospice library – “the most comprehensive online source of information on advanced illness, palliative care, loss and grief in the world.”
The anthology, its outcomes, and benefits were featured at the 2022 European Grief Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, having been accepted by the academic review committee for a poster presentation entitled: Transformative Outcomes [a Paradigm Shift] Through Expressive Writing for Adults Bereaved in Childhood – My Mother’s Story: Gone Too Soon. See the conference poster here.
Michelle Hohn's Story of Florence (2015)
My Mother’s Story and the Mothership Stories Society was founded in 2004 by Vancouver actor, writer, and story editor Marilyn Norry, with a vision to document the extraordinary lives of ordinary women – one story at a time. After writing her own mother’s story in 2015* and posting it to the online archive, Michelle became the first MMS facilitator; running writing labs and supporting other women on their journey to explore, document, and honour their mothers lives.
*Story and photo updated in Gone Too Soon in 2022
Chaos to Calm: Awakenings Through COVID (2020)
Michelle is a contributing author to this special edition in the Daring to Share storytelling series. Her chapter – Abundance – takes a closer look at personal loss, the processing of grief, and her evolving path to resilience in the context of a global pandemic.
Diana Reyers and Daring to Share Global storytelling offer the opportunity to experience stories of personal awareness; bearing witness to each writer’s authentic road trip that takes them from “there to here”, from adversity to victory, as they navigate their way to a feeling of inner purpose and place of truth.