Category: About

About the Author

Biography

Born in 1944, Marianna Mejia is a writer, Flamenco dancer and teacher, Psychotherapist and Shamanic practitioner. She is married with a grown child and a granddaughter, step-children and great grandchidren. Although writing books is her passion, she also enjoys dance and music, nature, gardening, shamanic work, and people.

She enjoyed an alternative lifestyle in the 60’s and continues to live life on her own terms in her 70’s.

Marianna Mejia
Marianna Mejia – At my 70th birthday party.

Becoming The Oldest Generation – A Memoir by Marianna Mejia

This is a book about my reactions to my mother’s decay, her death, and the mourning period. The story takes place in Herzlia Petuach, Israel in 1996 and 1997.

My Wish

My wish is that my writing about my mother’s aging and death help others as they pass through this human stage of life. It is hard to have a parent die. Maybe my experiences, chronicled here will be a helpful guide and comfort to others as they face this loss and also become the elder generation in the continuing cycle of life!

 

Inside the book:

How I dealt with death of a parent. Ways to cope with the death of a loved one.

Emotional and spiritual growth.

Resources: friends, spiritual help (specifically mine was shamanic), humor, witnesses,

 

Themes of the book

Themes of the book:

Set in Israel in the late nineties,

Dealing with My Mom’s Aging, Dying, and Death

My personal growth

  • Starting to create family relationships by learning from my stepfather who I feel is blocking them.
  • How my stepfather taught me by example to enter a room and greet people
  • Cultivating family as a way of coping with aging parents
  • Using witnesses to my writing of the events as a way for me to cope: feeling heard
  • Using shamanic rituals and experiences as a way to cope with difficult aging and death.
  • Thought provoking about choices in our lives as we age.
  • Letting go of my agenda for my Mom’s dying process
  • Growing compassion

My stepfamily’s dealing with previous death

Picture of Israel – a Westernized Middle Eastern country

  • Includes description of parts of Israel, along with current Israeli Jewish customs, all of which influenced my mother and me as well.
  • Vignettes of their friends enlarge the picture and sometimes add a comic relief quality.

Shamanism and its use in helping me deal with this part of my life