Author Plum Johnson is shown in a handout photo. Johnson has won the RBC Taylor Prize for her book “They Left Us Everything,” published by Penguin Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

TORONTO - Toronto writer Plum Johnson has won the $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize for her memoir about an emotional journey many baby boomers are going through these days.

"They Left Us Everything" (Penguin Canada) chronicles Johnson's efforts to sort through her late parents' possessions and clear out their family home in Oakville, Ont.

As she and her brothers took on the monumental task, they found themselves not just reminiscing about their childhoods, but also coming to terms with relationships they hadn't dealt with before.

"After mom and dad died and I moved out to Oakville to clear out this rambling 23-room house that hadn't been decluttered in 65 years, I started taking a few things to the thrift store and saw that everybody else was doing the same thing," Johnson recalled after winning the prize on Monday.

"The thrift stores were just packed with stuff, brown furniture from the '50s and silver-plated serving dishes and things.

"I called my agent and I said: 'It looks like everybody's doing what I'm doing. Do you think there's a book here?'"

This is the first full-length prose book from Johnson, who founded KidsCanada Publishing Corp., and co-founded Help's Here! magazine.

She said she was "totally stunned" when she won the non-fiction prize over four other finalists, who included two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize winner M.G. Vassanji of Toronto for "And Home Was Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa" (Doubleday Canada).

Also on the short list was former Giller finalist Kathleen Winter of Montreal for "Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage" (House of Anansi Press).

The other finalists were David O'Keefe of Montreal for "One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada's Tragedy at Dieppe" (Random House Canada), and London-based Barbara Taylor with "The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times" (Hamish Hamilton Canada).

Born in Richmond, Va., Johnson grew up in the Oakville house that she had to clear out. She described her British dad as "a very strict disciplinarian" and her mom as a "laid-back American southern belle."

Her dad died a few years before her mom did in 2010.

She said her relationship with her mom had deteriorated in her later years and they "struggled ... right to the end."

"She became this grumpy old person and I became this cranky, guilt-ridden daughter."

But sorting through her parents' stuff gave her "a new understanding of who they were."

She also developed some self-forgiveness and felt like she reconnected with her mother as she pored over the 2,000 letters she left behind.

Johnson's advice to others dealing with the same situation is to "communicate well with siblings and forgive yourself, because we all do the best we can."

"And I would say to everybody else: 'Don't throw away your diaries. Share them with your children and let them know who you really are, and if they're too steamy to share with them before you die, leave them behind for them to find afterwards.'"

Named after the late Canadian essayist Charles Taylor, the prize is into its 14th year and also awards $2,000 to the four runners-up.

This year's jury members — Kevin Garland, Martin Levin, and Andrew Preston — read 128 books.

Last year's winner was Thomas King of Guelph, Ont., for "The Inconvenient Indian."

News from © The Canadian Press, 2015