An 80-year-old woman's struggle with memory loss

In her novel Elizabeth is Missing published in 2014, writer Emma Healey’s main character is an 80 years old woman struggling with memory loss.

Maud Horsham’s daily life is not easy, she can’t remember where she is or the people who visit her (including her aid and family) even what she went to buy from the supermarket. She keeps writing notes to remind herself of what’s happening around her, yet this memory aid backfires most of the time as she doesn’t remember when or why she wrote it.

One of the notes she finds in her pocket says that her friend Elizabeth is missing. Nobody seems to know where she is, not even her daughter Helen or Elizabeth’s son Peter whose rude and aggressive behavior convinces Maud that he’s hiding something. She decides to go to the police to report her friend’s disappearance to discover that she’d already been there before and nobody in the station is taking her seriously.

Elizabeth’s disappearance provokes old memories of Sukey - Maud’s elder sister - who disappeared 70 years ago.

Maud was 10 at the time and went searching for her missing sister along with her family and Sukey’s husband Frank. But how could the two disappearances be related? Can solving one lead to solving the other? Would Maud be able to do that even though her memory loss is worsening by the day? Emma Healey does a brilliant job using the first-person narrative to transform you directly to Maud’s world, what is it like to be old and forgetful?

How can daily tasks become frustrating because you can’t remember how to do them? There are times when even thinking straight is impossible as old memories suddenly gets on the way of new ones, and everything becomes jumbled up.

Even objects names are sometimes lost and the reader relies on Maud’s description of what she’d come across, for example: the thing that they tie the hair with.

However, the saddest part is that Maud is aware of how her situation is affecting others as she describes the roll of eyes and mockery she’s met with. But amid all that muddle, moments of clarity come like sunlight breaking through dark clouds in the form of Maud’s childhood memories in post-war time Britain, a short interval from old age confusion and a reminder that old people are not born that way; they were once young and to many aging is something they still can’t identify with.

Maud’s family (her daughter and granddaughter) are side characters that support her yet at times are forgotten or confused with people from the past. The only fault I found in the narrative is that the reason behind Maud’s memory loss is not identified – old age or Alzheimer’s? – but this might be left out intentionally as Maud doesn’t know either.

Elizabeth is Missing is Healey’s debut novel that won her the Costa Book Award for First Novel in 2014 followed by the Betty Trask Award that is given to writers under the age of 35 in 2015.

Her second book Whilst in the Dark was published in 2018. Elizabeth is Missing was made into a TV series by the same name in 2019, starring Glenda Jackson as Maud and Maggie Steed as Elizabeth. It was well received by critics and Glenda Jackson won Best Actress in many British festivals including British Academy Television Awards and Edinburgh TV Awards. She also won an Emmy for the role last year. The book is a rare compassionate insight into the world of aging and memory loss. A powerful and a memorable read for all ages. (The writer is a certified skills trainer and an author)