Recently I was reached out to about about a new memoir because of our family’s series of articles on The Process of Building A House, by an author named M.G. Barlow. The title Home, My Story of House and Personal Restoration stole my heart when it was pitched to me, so in line with where our head’s are at with our new home. So I’d like to share about it here because it says a lot of what my husband and I have discovered ourselves.

“As homeowners, we are but transient stewards of a house’s survival. Keep a house strong–—the appreciation it reciprocates will lift not only our own spirits, but those of all to come after we’re gone.”

M.G. Barlow

According to M.G. Barlow, caring for your home, whether it’s a vintage house or a small apartment can create a sense of purpose and offer a chance to heal yourself from grief or trauma. Both of which spawned her memoir, which illustrates how to restore oneself through their home.

M.G.’s journey began with her mother’s suicide and her father’s remarrying. The house that M.G. once adored had to be buried.

Later in life, M.G. discovered a vintage farmhouse–—rundown and decaying–—and made it home after researching its history, repairing its broken parts, and healing through the renewal it extolled as a result.

The granddaughter of immigrants, she also covers what it was like growing up in an immigrant family, in addition to her journey of losing her mother as a child and fixing up an older house, while raising a family of her own.

Other Subjects ExploreD In M.G. Barlow’s Memoir Home:

• Healing Through Your Home: Restoration & Projects in Your House, for Your Mind
• Surviving Suicide & Grief: How Tragedy Reverberates Through Life
• The Myth of Childhood Resilience 
• Immigrant Heritage: Growing Up in America
• Transforming Tragedy Into Art: The Relationship Between Creation & Healing
• The Catharsis of Journaling & Memoirs
• Home Renovation: Taking Care of the Space You’re In So It Takes Care of You
• The Many Concepts of ‘Home’
• Postpartum Depression
• How To Make Your Home Care For You

Who Is M.G. Barlow?

A graduate of Clark University, M.G. Barlow graduated magna cum laude, earning a bachelor’s degree in the science of professional communications. As a medical writer, Mary. has written extensively for commercial organizations on numerous diseases, life sciences products, and on the business of healthcare. She is an expert on how healthcare in the United States works and on the challenges related to its accessibility. Before her medical writing career, Mary served as a journalist for the Blackstone Valley Tribune, a small community newspaper that operated in Northbridge, Massachusetts and for the Telegram and Gazette, a daily paper circulated in Worcester County. 

Summary of Memoir

In childhood, M.G. adores her old family house as if it were a guardian with heart and soul. After her mother dies, her father soon remarries and sends her and her brothers, one at a time, off to live with older siblings. M.G. buries her affection for that home, along with the family divisions and pain of her mother's departure. She becomes that kid—the one who falls through the cracks, and stumbles into adulthood wrecked, scarred, and undisciplined.

All the while, another vintage house, busy protecting an immigrant family in a historic mill community awaits. Years later as an adult, M.G. falls in love with the place, despite its cracked cement, broken stoop, and the chipmunks whizzing in and out from under a door. As M.G. researches her home and repairs its broken parts, she discovers the gradual personal restoration that ensues as a result.

Home, braids the history of a New England house and town with teachings of motherhood, loss and tradition—plus a little romance and humor along the way.