Reliance Road - A Memoir

Reliance Road, recounted in a collection of tender and hopeful vignettes, recalls the past, shows how lessons apply to the present, and shares Kate Winn's life story with future generations.

In this memoir, Kate captures what life was like growing up on a small Wisconsin dairy farm in the1950s. As a teen, she attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she participated in turbulent anti-Vietnam War protests. With a degree in journalism, Kate pursued positions in energy policy at the state and national level. After a decade of government activities, she moved into the private sector, then established her own government relations firm that she successfully operated for 25 years.

Woven throughout this memoir is the poignant and loving relationship with her mother, a farm wife and home economics teacher, who gradually faded away from the ravages of dementia. The despair at the loss of the wise and compassionate mother Kate once knew deepened as the years wore on. Throughout the book, Kate's reliance on her mother, and later, her mother's dementia-induced reliance on Kate, are beautifully and lovingly expressed.