The Unabridged Memoir

Hello, I’m Sarita, writer, poet and storyteller from Perth/Boorloo.

The Unabridged Memoir was created from my own lived experience of reminiscence. At the age of 29, I said farewell to my beautiful mum when she exhaled for the last time in this life. 

It never occurred to me when I was younger to ask her deeper questions about her life. I knew the basics, where she grew up, what she studied and who our family were. 

In my 40s, now a mother myself, there was so much more that I wish I knew…

What was she afraid of?

What did she dream of?

Did she feel, as I felt, about the big things in life – motherhood, relationships, love?

Then digging through old storage boxes, I stumbled upon a box of her journals. I opened one, reading it cover to cover, and the whole night dissolved into a surreal nostalgia as piles of journals lay open around me. 

Her inner world was revealed on the pages. I laughed with her anecdotes, held my breath with her fears and cried at her disappointments. I absorbed the moments of her life through her eyes, and as I reflected on her, I understood something deeper about myself. 

I read them all that night, and I continue to read them, when I feel a bit lost and wonder what advice she would give. 

I created The Unabridged Memoir to help you write a collection of your own personal reminiscences. My hope is that one day, someone will read your words and that they could offer the healing, guidance and love I feel, when I hold my mum’s journals.