Peter Kay shares his experience of dealing with an aging parent. Peter Kay knew the end was coming when his mother fell. Her hip was pushed back in place and the next step was rehab. However Kay’s mother had given up. She always found an excuse to put off the exercises; she was too tired, in too much pain or didn't feel good. She made little to no progress and had to leave the rehab center. It was time to look for a nursing home. Kay and his siblings began the search; they visited several and found most lacking but since their mother was on Medicaid there was little they could say. They finally settled on one. Kay’s mother pleaded to go home but the family knew this was now her home.

Having recently dealt with a similar situation I could appreciate Peter Kay’s humor. I know I quickly learned that you had to laugh because if you didn't you would cry. Kay shares his short stories in a conversational style. A good editor could assist Kay in better organizing the text of this book. There were several times when Kay inserted something at a point where it seemed off topic. However, "The Owl in the Tree" is an encouraging read and should help others going through a similar situation.

An owl in a tree is a sign of someone's coming death, and author Peter Kay tells of losing his mother, Rita, as she slips away into death in a nursing home. The author and his brothers and sister visit their mother frequently and sit by her side as often as possible and bringing festive foods and mementos on holidays, that will help her recall those times long ago when she and her husband lived with their five young children on First Avenue in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Kay writes of his favorite Aunt Marie who died of lung cancer at the age of 48, of his father's stroke at 53 and how his mother kept him alive for seventeen years after that attack. He also tells of his own surgery for a cancerous tumor on one of his kidneys and of his siblings' attention during that time as well as at other times throughout the years. Author Kay recalls many incidents, humorous and otherwise, during his thirty-eight years in retail work.

"The Owl in the Tree" is a poignant memoir by Peter Kay as he writes of his own life and of his family's many relatives and friends. What comes through most clearly in this memoir is the closeness of family, friends and neighbors in his childhood neighborhood in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The author writes on page 142, "one mother can take care of five kids but five kids can't take care of a mother." He doesn't comment unkindly on those who spend little time with aged parents but I am sure some readers will reflect on their own aged parents or relatives and perhaps "step up to the plate" more often after reading "The Owl in the Tree."