Terry Helwig

Posted on Book Chelle.

When I read the synopsis, I was drawn to the story. A lot of women I know do not have easy relationships with their mothers. Naturally, I wanted to know how Helwig’s own relationship with her mother differed from min. I read the forward from Kidd and was even more intrigued. And then, I read the the prologue and my heart broke. She had me during those few pages.

In Moonlight Linoleum, Helwig writes an emotional memoir that details her childhood. Helwig did not just show more recount the events that took place in her life. Instead, she beautifully wrote the story of her childhood, filled with description and detail that I couldn’t believe it was real. Her story-telling abilities are so amazing that you are captivated by each memory that fills each page.

With these memories, Helwig presents a life that is filled with sad and unfortunate events. Her life has become a story of strength, overcoming every obstacle that has been thrown her way. She has had to mature earlier than she has ever needed to be.

Helwig’s mother is Carola Jean Vacha, a young teen who wanted to escape her own family and life. She married young, lying about her age to assure escape, and quickly had Helwig. After a short while, Carola left her husband, taking her baby to find a better and brighter life. Unfortunately, that is not the story for Carola, or for Helwig. The story continues moving from one city to another, adding children and husbands, one by one, with the dream of something more.

The intimacy of detail that Helwig includes has only intensified the impact that Moonlight on Linoleum has had on me. Abuse, depression, and infidelity is only a few of what Helwig has had to endure throughout her childhood, and all while being the responsible one for her six sisters.

But this book wasn’t just filled with sorrow and sadness. Helwig has a lot of love that she shares. While her mother was not the ideal parent, Helwig wholeheartedly loved her mother. If that isn’t a perfect example of unconditional love, then I don’t know what is. Helwig loved her mother, for what I think is the idea of who she could be.

Helwig also loved her sisters like no one else. She realized the unrealistic situations and sometimes became the parent that they only had. Helwig also loved a man she called Daddy. Daddy Davy was Carola’s second husband, and was the only man that played a constant in her life. My heart broke for him. He loved and wore his heart on his sleeve. While he was content on being naive and in denial, I don’t think he deserved what was done to him.

Moonlight on Linoleum is painfully reflective yet ultimately hopeful. Helwig is a fantastic story-teller and wrote this sad tale impeccably. This was a story told through the eyes of a young, little girl who believed in family and togetherness. She conquered physical and emotional pain and clearly thrives. It is clear that the hope of Helwig will lead to a happy ending, not just for Helwig, but for the reader as well. show less

An achingly brilliant memoir of an eldest daughter growing up with a mother whose dreams and desires were bigger than her own reality. For all those who grew up watching Leave it to Beaver or Father knows best and knew their own family never quite matched the TV ideal, this story will tear at your heart while striking chords of recognition in the truths. As her biological father once said, "Life is hard to understand at times" yet in her own life Terry not only survived but she excelled at show more finding joy and love which she shares with us through this memoir. show less

In Terry Helwig’s memoir Moonlight on Linoleum, she recounts her childhood and her relationship with her mother. Her mother had her when she was only 15, and she went on to have four more girls that Terry helped her raise. Her mother was a party girl who liked to go out dancing, drinking and entertaining men other than her husband. Terry was only 25 years old when her mother, by then married five times, died of a drug overdose. The author recounts a childhood filled with pitiful incidents: show more picture being dropped off for a summer with dad, only to be picked up years later. Yet, it is also filled with the author’s obvious love for her mother. She remembers her mother with humor and warmth, seeming to understand how life was too hard for her mother to bear. She is one of those special strong people who, even through the pain, are able to see a newly waxed linoleum floor and think it’s “achingly beautiful.” Although her life was unstable, she graduated from high school after attending 12 different schools. One of the interesting aspects of the book to me involved her step-father, Daddy, who led the family around the southern part of the country as his job dictated. It was an interesting look into the life of a migrant oil worker as they quickly picked up their trailer and moved from town to town in Texas to follow the work. The author probably owes the ability to reflect on her childhood without bitterness in large part to the stability her stepfather provided. MLM Jan 2012 show less

I really enjoyed this autobiography about the author growing up with her five sisters, her unstable mother and her step-father, whose loving presence was often the only stability that she experienced. I thought that Helwig was able to bring impressive detail to the dusty Texas towns that she lived in, moving often more than once a year, because of her step-father's work in the oil fields. I particularly was struck by Helwig's descriptions of her connection to the natural world, which seemed show more to comfort her when her life was like a tornado spinning around her.

The only drawback for me was that the last third of the book seemed to be rushed, with far less detail given to Helwig's senior year of high school, which was spent living alone with her two oldest sisters in California, and to her time immediately after graduation, when she returned to Texas to care for her two youngest sisters. She reached a point when she was comfortable differentiating herself from her difficult, mentally ill mother, no longer feeling the need to take care of her or to pick up the slack in caring for her younger sisters, but the details of this decision, which would have been the most interesting part of her relationship with her mother to me, were lacking. show less