Melted Away - by Barbara Drake-Vera (Paperback)

About the Book

"Can caring for a parent abroad-in a culture that values elders and venerates the natural world-transform a dysfunctional relationship between a troubled WWII vet and his long-estranged daughter? Melted Away, American writer Barbara Drake-Vera's vivid, emotional memoir about her years in Peru, shows that it can. In 2011, Drake-Vera reluctantly brought her elderly father with Alzheimer's to live with her in Lima, Peru, where she had relocated in 2007 with her Peruvian-born husband to document the effects of rapid climate change. She had no illusions that her father-a vain, humorless postal worker who had verbally abused her as a child-would be an easy houseguest, but she knew that, unlike in the United States, she could afford trained health aides in Peru's dusty capital city. Little did she know that her experiment in eldercare abroad would crack open a mystery that had held her captive for forty years: her father's violent, unexplained jealousy toward her as a successful child poet. Melted Away: A Memoir of Climate Change and Caregiving in Peru recounts how a bitter man with dementia and his emotionally scarred daughter found the courage to change after decades of distrust. Their journey began with her father hallucinating, nearly blinding Barbara and trying to kill himself. Saved by his insightful, compassionate Peruvian caregivers-who viewed his temporary hallucinations prior to being medicated as glimpses into "The Land of the Dead"-her father learned to trust others, laugh again and even learn Spanish with dementia. Meanwhile, as Barbara struggled to report on a sacred melting glacier in the high Andes-site of the ancient glacier pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit'i ("Shining Snow Star," in the Quechua language)-she gradually realized that ensuring her far-from-perfect father's care might be a way of healing herself. By the time he died of a heart attack-surrounded by caregivers-she no longer needed his apology, but his Florida storage unit held one last surprise. There she found his hidden notebook from the 1950s where he had recorded the events that made him so tormented. Reading those musty, ink-stained pages set her free-and enabled her to resume her explorations of the remote villages around Mount Ausangate, revered as a mountain deity by the local people. As a grief narrative, Drake-Vera's memoir offers a candid look at how one person struggled with the painful legacy of childhood trauma and finally reclaimed herself as a woman and as a writer-thanks to an unexpected immersion in Peruvian eldercare and the rituals of respect practiced by its indigenous people. Melted Away gives readers a personal glimpse of daily life in an Andean country that has one foot in its pre-Columbian past and the other in the twenty-first century. Interweaving fieldnotes from three pilgrimages to the Snow Star festival with her longtime guide Pablo Huaman and interviews with Andeanists Inge Bolin and Alfonsina Barrionuevo and paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson, Melted Away reveals the complex, human face of climate change-and argues that the only path forward is to embrace our carga [burden] of caring for the planet and one another"--

Book Synopsis

A prolific poet as a child, Barbara Drake-Vera loved writing almost as much as she adored her father, a moody postal employee with an elaborate comb-over and a fondness for Mahler. But when her successes sparked his rage, Barbara silenced her voice for years, terrified even to see her name in print. By age forty-nine, she was a professional journalist living in Peru and collaborating with her husband, a Peruvian-born photographer, to report on melting glaciers in the Andes, far from the reach of her father.

Melted Away recounts what happens after her father is diagnosed with advancing Alzheimer's and Barbara takes him into her home in Lima, beginning a process of self-discovery that uncovers a path toward personal and family healing. A diverse group of allies support her on this quest: a trio of caregiving women from the provinces, who serve as home-health aides; a mischievous, Cervantes-quoting, nonagenarian suitor; and a stubborn alpaca herder who lives beneath a long-worshipped, life-sustaining Andean glacier now melting from rapid climate change.

Candid, poignant, and deeply researched, Melted Away is the true story of how a writer at midlife reclaims her agency, and an ardent plea to care for the planet by embracing collectivism and mutual aid.

Review Quotes

"Melted Away beautifully combines the story of a writer's complicated relationship with her father who develops dementia, her commitment to combating climate change, and her deep love for Peruvian culture. Stories about becoming a caregiver for a difficult person--one who has done unforgivable things--are important, and Drake-Vera's willingness to share the range of feelings she has for her father is powerful."--Cindy Weinstein, coauthor of Finding the Right Words: A Story of Literature, Grief, and the Brain

"Written with an impressive degree of literary elegance, Melted Away by Barbara Drake-Vera is an extraordinary memoir that will be of particular appreciation for readers with an interest in climatology and environmental science, the country and people of Peru, and the impact of Alzheimer's on complex family relationships. Exceptional and highly recommended."--Midwest Book Review

"An exquisite blend of memoir and environmental reporting from the precipice of the climate crisis."--Cynthia Barnett, author of The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans

"Drake-Vera's wonderful memoir scales both the Andes and the towering mystery of how to care for an unlovable father. Melted Away is about compassion, for both a declining family member and a failing environment."--Jill Ciment, author of The Body in Question

"From the New Jersey suburbs to the rapidly disappearing glaciers of the Peruvian Andes, Barbara Drake-Vera takes us on a personal journey of discovery. With her adept storytelling and brutally honest introspection, she helps humanize the pain of the unfolding climate crisis."--Michael E. Mann, author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

About the Author

Barbara Drake-Vera is an award-winning fiction writer and journalist who lives in Gainesville, Florida. From 2007 to 2014, she resided in Peru, where she worked as a field producer for NBC Nightly News and the TODAY Show.