STATE OF MIND

Molina reflects on her time working at a private home in England for the mentally disabled and the lessons about human nature she learned there.

The author writes early on that a series of unforeseen disasters transformed her happy life: Her partner in an unspecified business became gravely ill and died, compelling her to shut the business down. Then, her mother’s health took a turn for the worse, resulting in her experiencing terrible pain and a great loss of mobility. The author also moved to help her father, a cheerful man who went through life with the “air of an absent-minded professor,” according to the author. Molina started a new job nearby as an assistant housemother at Sunnymount, a private home for the mentally disabled which housed 30 residents. She was hired despite “absolutely no qualifications for the job on offer”; however, she took to the work quickly, and as an experienced horse rider and instructor, she was instrumental in the introduction of riding therapy to the home’s residents. Eventually, Molina would ascend to the rank of senior housemother and become an important member of the Sunnymount community. She notes that she found that the home’s residents often had “extraordinary talents or knowledge,” and in these pages, she offers intelligent reflections on the ways in which human beings can handle “ all manner of adversities,” noting that people possess “all the tools within our bodies to deal.” However, the remembrance is hampered by the inclusion of a number of very familiar platitudes: “Seeing the glass half full or half empty, focusing on the positive or the negative has a huge bearing on how our lives evolves. We are so busy mulling over the past or planning and worrying about the future we miss the magic of the present.” As such, it may have difficulty attracting an audience beyond readers who already know the author.

A thoughtful but unevenly executed account of the author’s professional experience.