BURLINGTON, Mass. — When offering advice to someone, have you ever started with...My mother always says?
It’s a common phrase for many, including a Burlington mom. She found herself saying that so much that she decided to write a book with her 93-year-old mother, offering 25 life lessons to help navigate some of the toughest times.
“I forgot how many of these lessons we really like,” said Amy Goober to her mother, Gwen Borden, as they turned the pages of their book.
In a fast-paced world where there are quick tips on social media--
“So many of our influencers, social media and otherwise, are young, and there’s a lot of flash, where is the life experience in that?” said Amy Goober, co-author of ‘My Mother Always Says’.
Amy Goober is turning back time—— and letting the wisdom of her 93-year-old mother do the teaching. Amy and her mom, Gwen Borden, wrote a book based on their life experiences, offering 25 life lessons for finding the silver lining.
“I gave birth to Amy, she gave birth to his book,” said Borden.
The book goes through major life events from Gwen—being born during the depression and her sister contracting polio—to her husband dying just months after learning he had a brain tumor.
“There’s no planning in life, life happens,” said Borden.
While many would consider those to be bad life experiences they’d want to forget, Gwen tells it otherwise.
“There are no bad experiences, just the ones you don’t learn from,” said Borden. “When something goes wrong in your life, you could wail and cry, and why me? But if you say, What am I going to get out of this? There’s a positive side to the bad thing that happened.”
Gwen went back to school to become a social worker and helped create a bereavement center for others who had suddenly lost a loved one. At 70 years old, she was working more than ever and was on retainer for the New York Fire Department right after 9/11.
“If you live long enough, you begin to realize that everything that happened in your life was all there to make you a better, stronger person,” said Borden.
Amy says she learned how to be resilient through her mom, and wanted to share their life lessons with others
“The book is a way to take the lessons that my mother has inspired and taught me and try to put them into action,” said Goober.
Whittled down to 25 life lessons, Gwen and Amy certainly have their favorites:
“Don’t be afraid to fail,” said Goober. “It’s just try, just go, just do it. And there is no fallout because the things we regret in life, really, mainly, are the things we don’t do.”
“Things happen,” said Borden. “Accidents happen. Not because we do anything, we have no control over those things. So learn to accept what you cannot change is a very important thing to learn in life.”
A life coach herself, Amy hopes the book becomes the reader’s anchor—and if they are struggling with something, they can go back to the book and apply what they learned.
“And remember that the challenges are there because some time down the road, they’re going to use the resiliency and what they gained and learned from the challenge,” said Goober. “They can’t even see it yet, but it’s coming.”
There were some fun tips in the book as well. Gwen pointed out—your kids hear you the first time. So if you say the same thing several times, they have likely tuned you out completely.
She suggests say what you mean once, and move on.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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