'Two things happen today. My mother falls and I foresee my own death. These two things may or may not be connected … I know as I watch her fall that, contrary to the habit of a lifetime, I will not walk away.' Linda Neil is a successful musician and performer who, in her thirties, moves back home to live with and care for her mother, Joan. She doesn't realise that her mother's illness will rapidly progress into Parkinson's disease and that this time with her will change Linda's life. Connected by a deep love of music, Linda and her mother find a way to get to know one another again and make sense of what is happening to them. Learning how to Breathe highlights the universality of dealing with ageing and ailing parents and how the family relationships we may have taken for granted can be renewed. In Learning how to Breathe, Linda Neil uses music as a metaphor to share her heartbreaking, but uplifting, story of finally coming to know her mother – and herself.
