Sam Freedman

“There is no present or future – only the past happening over and over again.” Within this quote, Freedman explores and recounts his deceased mother’s life in his novel “Who She Was.” In an attempt to understand and discover who his mother really was, Freedman successfully goes through time and space to gather the pieces of the puzzle. After her death due to breast cancer, Freedman revisits her grave 30 years later and is filled with shame and remorse. He regrets not being a more attentive son and wishes he was better to her when she was sick. With unresolved penance and guilt in mind, Freedman goes on a compelling journey to piece her mother’s life and at the same time fill the void from the absence of his mother.

Most memoirs and stories of family history may encounter the same problem – the need to invent or manipulate the facts to complete the story. Freedman’s succeeds in what he believes – to be as true as possible and if done accurately and honestly, readers would be able to connect to the story by relating their own experiences and recognizing aspects of themselves. Though his intention was to search for his mother’s life, he hoped to also connect with people who are immigrants or children of immigrants. Writing the book was a form of therapy to heal Freedman’s grief for his mother. In writing and publishing his book, he succeeded in making sense of his and his mother’s past.

When asked about writing biographies, Freedman responded with “ordinary lives are filled with extraordinary drama”. He finds inspecting ordinary lives far more interesting than writing about famous people in the limelight. In exploring his mother’s past, he delved into photographs, newspapers, music, and magazines of the specific time period to soak the ambience and bridge the time gap. Along with these materials, he also contacted people who knew his mother, spending four years compiling information to find his mother’s “drama”. If his mother were alive, she would have been proud and satisfied with her son who had felt remorse and spent time trying to find her past. He had only cherished his mother after her death, and even then he had only grasped her presence and past. This goes to show that we must treasure each moment spent with loved ones so we do not regret what could have been when loved ones are gone.