My mother and I were inseparable—in other words, I had a firm grasp and her patience was inordinate. She raised me and my siblings in the heart of Auckland, and her parenting can be characterised by intentionality, a quality I now strive for with my own children.

When I was twenty-three, she told me she would die within two years. The cancer had already spread from her oesophagus to her liver.

Several months after her funeral (2014), questions I had for her kept popping into my mind: “Who did you live with in London, again?” “Which person from your life was most influential?”

It was already too late, of course.

My three children (unfamiliar with my late mother) continue to ask about this mysterious person who categorically transformed my life. I have only few answers for them. Still, I continue to write about her.

I am a writer of both nonfiction and fiction. My work is published in various magazines and literary journals and has been nominated for the Sargeson Prize and the Michael Gifkins Text Prize. An essay about my mother can be viewed here.

The seed for Legacy Narratives was planted during a writer’s conference in California. While listening to the “work stories” of a death doula, my friend leaned over and asked whether I’d ever considered branching out from journalism and literary journals to writing people’s life stories.

Today, I craft narratives into beautifully-designed books that reflect the unforgettable people in our lives, and those indelible moments—anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, and of course, the farewell of those we love most.