Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
Léonie, whose mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, struggles with an implacable, court-appointed guardian against the backdrop of centuries-old family myths and miscommunication. Mama wants their story told, but the courts demand that secrecy enshroud all guardianship records—forever. After years of struggle and Kafkaesque frustration, and with the help of a brilliant, unconventional attorney, Léonie goes to war with the establishment in an attempt to help others find their way through the swamp of legal guardianship.
“Not in This Country,” an article based on the story of the gag order and how it was released, won First Place in the New Mexico Press Women’s annual Communications Contest (2022).
Praise for Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp
So many older people are caught between a rock and a hard place. Alzheimer's patients segue between clarity and confusion which keeps them from being able to let others know their needs. My father once likened it to "being in Purgatory". Leonie's book is a needed enlightenment for families facing these problems.
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2021
Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp is Léonie Rosenstiel’s jaw-dropping rendition of her fourteen-year battle with her elderly mother’s “commercial guardian.” It was far from a one-on-one struggle, as she also faced an array of lawyers, financial advisors, licensed social workers, nursing assistants and contractors who worked in concert with the guardian… While Protecting Mama: Surviving the Guardianship Swamp is Rosenstiel’s description of the problems she and her mother experienced under New Mexico’s guardianship system, guardianship laws and procedures are now being scrutinized in other states – often because of stories similar to the Rosenstiel’s. Those involved in that review -- and anyone considering a guardianship for an older, disabled loved one -- should read this book.
This book brings the reader inside the experiences of a family as they are put through the guardianship meat grinder. It does so without judgmental language, just bringing us into the author's world, minute by minute. I couldn't put this book down and read it in four hours.
We've all heard stories. But most of the stories we hear are told through the lens of hurt, anger, and bitterness. That's the natural thing to do, especially if you aren't a skilled or trained writer. Leonie takes a different stance. She is a "witness" who comes back to tell the tale. Most books on guardianship explain what's wrong with guardianship, but this one? It leads the reader directly through personal experience in a way that truly shines a light into dark corners without starting with a "purpose".
Leonie follows leads like a detective, which is why the book was so difficult for me to put down. The end result is unspeakably heart-breaking, yet she rises above it with a wonderful attorney who leads her through court processes, causing the reader to also see into the court system. I won't let the cat out of the bag, but her lawyer becomes a true hero and a friend. There is redemption in this book, and great beauty as well. I hope you read it! It's quite simply--amazing.
Nadia Boulanger: A Life in Music
A detailed, authoritative portrait of a commanding figure in twentieth-century music. Nadia Boulanger’s life spanned nearly a century, and at her death she was still director of the American School of Music at Fontainebleau, which she helped found after World War I. Enormously influential, she taught many distinguished performers and composers―among them Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Elliott Carter. She helped American music gain worldwide recognition. For this first full biography, Léonie Rosenstiel has drawn on papers and records to which Boulanger gave her unprecedented access and also on numerous interviews. The result is a rich portrait of an important woman of our time. The final third of the book depicts Nadia’s progressive loss of her mental capacity and the increasing control her longtime assistants assumed over her life.
Praise for Nadia Boulanger: A Life in Music
“If there ever were an “anima woman” in the world of music — an inspiring female through whose talents and sensibilities male artists have shone — it was the teacher Nadia Boulanger”
"Since it seems unlikely that 20th-century American music would have developed precisely as it did without Nadia Boulanger, the appearance of a major biography of the extraordinary French pedagogue is a matter of very special interest."
