Due for Release 31st October
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Due for Release 31st October 〰️
This Wasn’t The Plan: Grieving the Golden Years that Never Came
Life was supposed to get easier after the kids grew up and retirement came into view. Instead, I found myself juggling adult children, caring for my aging dad, and grieving the golden years I’d been promised — all while muttering the same phrase on repeat: “This wasn’t the plan.”
This book is my brutally honest, unexpectedly funny, and sometimes tear-soaked account of midlife gone sideways. It’s about the grief no one talks about — not just losing loved ones, but losing the life you imagined. It’s also about resilience, boundaries, and learning to laugh even when nothing looks like you thought it would.
If you’ve ever found yourself caught between responsibility and exhaustion, or whispered “surely it wasn’t supposed to be like this” into the laundry basket, this story is for you.
A memoir for anyone who planned for golden years and got chaos instead.
About the book
She thought midlife would be calm, maybe even a little indulgent. Instead, it became a juggling act of grown kids moving back home, aging parents needing more care, and the quiet grief of a life that didn’t look anything like the one she’d imagined. This Wasn’t the Plan is a memoir told with razor-sharp wit and raw honesty, exploring what happens when the “golden years” arrive wrapped in chaos, obligation, and unexpected loss.
Through essays and reflections, Mel Robinson dives into the hidden grief of midlife: the tears that never came when her mother passed, the simmering rage of an empty nest that never emptied, and the small, tender lessons that surfaced in the mess. Along the way, she uncovers surprising resilience, hard-won boundaries, and the ability to laugh even when nothing has gone to plan.
This book is for anyone who’s ever felt squashed between caring for parents and supporting children, for every woman who’s held a family together with coffee and duct tape, and for anyone who’s whispered, “When is it my turn?” Honest, relatable, and unexpectedly funny, This Wasn’t the Plan is both a mirror and an invitation: to grieve the life you thought you’d have, and to discover the one you’re living.
What Readers Will Find Inside
Honest, unfiltered stories about the messy detours of midlife.
Moments of laughter popping up where you least expect them (yes, even in grief).
Lessons on boundaries, burnout, resilience, and finding your own footing again.
Permission to admit “this wasn’t the plan” — and still keep moving forward.
Who This Book Is For
This book is for anyone in the thick of midlife who feel stretched between grown kids and aging parents. It’s for caregivers who give more than they get, for readers who crave a memoir with grit and humor, and for anyone who has whispered, “surely life was supposed to look different than this.” If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, unseen, or like you lost the script to your own story, this book was written for you.
