When Janice Airhart was an infant, her mother was committed to a Louisiana mental hospital, and she spent most of the next 13 years institutionalized until her death in 1966. That no one in the family would speak about her schizophrenic mother convinced Airhart it was shameful to ask questions and that fears of inheriting her mother's illness were justified.

Mother of My Invention explores the unique challenges faced by motherless daughters and suggests that mothers can sometimes be found in unexpected places if we're open to finding them.