It was never in Sarah Vosburgh’s plan to be an author or to write a memoir. As a busy mom, wife, and psychologist, she always saw her life as full (sometimes overfull). But in the dark of night, memories knocked on her brain, compelling her to commit them first to paper, then to bits and bytes. Sarah is a member of the International Memoir Writers Association and San Diego Writers, Ink. Her work has been published in A Year in Ink and numerous volumes of Shaking the Tree: brazen. short. memoir. A native New Englander, she now lives in San Diego with her husband, her daughter, her granddog, and a most extraordinary feline.
Growing Up as an Only Child: Sarah reflects on her New England upbringing and her complex relationship with her mother—a brilliant, intellectually attentive, yet physically distant and anxious woman whose anxiety was largely managed by Sarah's father until his passing.
Late-Twenties Loss & Red Flags: Losing her father in her late 20s, followed by her mother's quick remarriage two years later to a partner where subtle signs of neglect and unexplained physical injuries began surfacing alongside early cognitive decline.
Systemic Roadblocks: The immense isolation of trying to intervene when her mother was driving dangerously on the left side of the road, only to encounter dismissive responses from physicians, the DMV, and local social workers.
The Car Key Breakthrough: A brilliant compromise suggested by Sarah's husband: disconnecting the car battery and placing a note inside the compartment for mechanics, while allowing her mother to keep her keys in her nightstand drawer so she retained her feeling of autonomy .
The Glass Nightstand "Hack": How Sarah's husband helped her process nocturnal grief ruminations by placing a custom glass top on her nightstand with a Sharpie so she could write down late-night memories without turning on the lights.
A Family Audiobook Collaboration: Crafting her memoir through San Diego Writers Inc. and recording the audiobook alongside her daughters—with her older daughter reading the "younger Sarah" passages, her younger daughter reading the poetry, and Sarah reading the present-day caregiving chapters.
The Snow Incident & Memory Care: The heartbreaking turning point when her mother wandered out into the memory care gardens in her pajamas and bare feet on a December morning to watch the snow fall, leading to an abrupt transfer to a locked psych unit.
"Who Will Name the Bees?": The origin of the book's title from their final Mother's Day visit, where her mother remembered Sarah's plans to start beekeeping with 40,000–50,000 bees and innocently asked in childlike wonder, "How will you find names for them all?" .
A Message of Solidarity: Sarah's core encouragement to anyone caretaking a parent with dementia: "You are not alone" in navigating this amateur, isolating business
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