After Karen Gooen’s mother’s long cog­ni­tive decline and pass­ing, she came across a group of pho­tos show­ing a pre­vi­ous­ly unseen glimpse into her mother’s ear­ly life. 

Gooen decid­ed to find out more about the pho­tos. In her research and writ­ing, Gooen reflects on many of her fam­i­ly gen­er­a­tions’ moth­er-daugh­ter rela­tion­ships, her Jew­ish iden­ti­ty, and assim­i­la­tion. In many ways it was a tremen­dous­ly heal­ing process for both her and the next gen­er­a­tion, her daugh­ter and niece, as they dis­cov­ered Ellen.