Senior Management: Parenting My Parents by Martha Vowles

This memoir highlights the glaring fact that our society needs to do A LOT of work to establish a more cohesive system for providing the best end-of-life care for our seniors. Martha Vowles has written a tender and heart-wrenching account of her experience navigating the many “systems” involved at that end-of-life care for our ageing population. Not only was she navigating all aspects of that care for her father and step-mother, but also she was doing it between two provinces which makes the job of advocate that much more difficult.

I was struck again and again at the disconnect between agencies that claim they are doing all they can to help families cope and manage this stage of life. Again and again, Martha ran into roadblocks and obstacles that threatened to overwhelm her in her pursuit of the best and safest care for her ageing parents.

“This book will make a helpful tool for anyone in the early stages of caring for an ageing parent.”

Agencies and governments pay lip service to the “rights” of individuals to receive the best end-of-life care. What they fail to accomplish is a cohesive and coordinated plan to provide that care.
Martha Vowles shows this poignantly and incredibly sadly in this memoir. I admire the author’s strength under enormous pressure. As a society, we are abysmally failing our elderly population.
This book will make a helpful tool for anyone in the early stages of caring for an ageing parent. There are many considerations to be made and Martha explores many of them here. I would love to see this book in the staff rooms at care facilities and hope that people going into the geriatric field, in any capacity, might take the time to read this memoir. Insight and empathy are powerful tools and developing skills for both will make eldercare better in every way.

Thank you Martha Vowles for sharing your “heart work” and your family story. I am sure it was a difficult write, but rest assured your readers will be helped with your words.


At age 55, author Martha Vowles became a first-time parent. Her new charges were reckless, accident-prone, pig-headed, over 80 years old and bigger than her.

  • Publisher : Nevermore Press, Ltd. (Jan. 1 2021)
  • Language : English
  • Paperback : 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 : 177755490X
  • ISBN-13 : 978-1777554903

*Please note if you choose to purchase this book through Amazon using the link below we will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you cannot see the Amazon ad below (if you are using an ad blocker, for instance) here is the link: https://amzn.to/3xTVVTa Thanks! 


I am a bookseller, book reviewer, author publicist and soon to be published author! I am passionate about Canadian literature in general and have a particular passion for Maritime Canadian books, authors and publishers.