Click Here To Purchase Swish: Maria in the Mouring 

 Author: Pamela Palmer Mutino

 Publisher: Outskirts Press

 ISBN: 978-1-4327-0086-7

Pamela Palmer Mutino’s S-W-I-S-H: Maria in the Mourning was also adapted for a staged reading in March 2007 and received stellar reviews.  As a playwright, Pamela has produced five plays and also has a B.A in Literature and Theatre and an M.A.T in Secondary English Education. She currently resides in Port Chester, New York with husband Peter, where she enjoys her passion for “preserving a lost elegance” through decorating, entertaining and gardening.

This is such a touching book so you really do have to prepare yourself with some tissues before you start to read.

Pamela starts off with these words: “I’m sitting on the couch. I’m not dressed. The day isn’t important, but my daughter is standing on the little landing about to go back up stairs. She’s in her wedding dress…”  

It is every mother’s dream to see her daughter grow up and marry some decent young man full of promise. Yet in the case of Pamela, the day she saw her daughter marry would sadly never come.

Maria loses her life to the ugly, unforgiving clutch of drugs. Even with her whole life ahead of her, the pull was too strong and soon her mother is a witness as paramedics carry her daughter’s body off on a stretcher “wrapped so tight”. 

It is sad to read about so many youngsters who have lost their lives. I’ve read many tales of addiction all with the same theme.

Maria, only 24, lost her life exactly the same way many others have. When will these kids realize drugs may seem to offer a sort-of escape route but they will not solve your problems. It is just an illusion - what I think of as a cloak masking the real issue.

Pamela writes touchingly about how Maria ends up in rehab and has to learn to face up to her demons. It was certainly not an easy part of her life but regular letters exchanged to and from her loving mum and keeping a journal, helped to keep Maria optimistic.

Returning home everyone hopes “beautiful and charismatic” Maria has ditched her habit for good. Time, it seems, tells a different tale.

Inside this book is poetry various family members and friends have written about Maria. A touching section from Pamela’s poem “Heroin and the Livid Lie” is as follows:

“It is raining, I don’t want to be here, But have you ever seen a magnolia tree in May? Petals of cheek-blush, crying softly on the grass?”

Read this poem and see through its words the love of a mother for her precious daughter.

Pictures are also included in this A-4 size colour paperback, showing them wonderfully. A really fitting tribute to Pamela’s daughter.  

This is immensely moving showing how addiction doesn’t only affect one person but acts like a stone throw into a lake. Its ripples reaching everyone and leaving many deeply moved in its path. Even readers of this book.