The editors, all published writers and experienced speakers, have shared "mother stories" with each other over a period of more than thirty years. They have found that each story opens doors of perception to the recognition that we all have bonding and dissolving, deepening and disheartening, transforming and traumatic, healing and hateful encounters with our mothers. Our individual experiences combine to describe a collective and recognizable whole - an archetypal portrait of Mother and Daughter - emerging in much the same way that gathered shards from a broken mirror illuminate a whole reflection. In the process of accepting the finality of our mothers' lives, we realize that all women have powerful stories to share. Contributors to the book are: Artress Cornmesser, Donna Owen Hopkins Ellis, Roseanna Frechette, Elizabeth French, Billie Ruth Hopkins Furuichi,Edy Henderson, Kathe Kokolias, Nina Boyd Krebs, Debra Madison, Betty Sanderson Owen, Ruth Owen Puchek, Charla K. Rotter, Jerrine Minkus Rowley, Bobbie Hopkins Spivey, Nora J. Stone, Lisa Swallow