Year and a Day Book

For anyone who has lost a beloved parent, this book will ring true. For me, that first year was tough and I was relieved when it was finished. It seemed to be a milestone and an accomplishment that I could make it through that first year without dying myself.

This is a beautiful, poignant novel about a teen-age girl whose mother's suicide begins a year of searching, pain, self-discovery, and, eventually, forgiveness and love. It is beautifully written with many passages I read over and over.

I have read one other book by this author - "Pears on a Willow Tree" and never forgot it. I had a hard time finding this one and finally downloaded it on my Kindle. I wish she was more prolific; I would read anything she writes.

There is one passage in this book that I love; one that reminds me of my mother because she loved storms - storms of any kind - rain, snow, sleet, whatever. She thought they were beautiful in their
power. I am copying it here:

"I got out of bed, hurried across the freezing floor and saw the world encased in a brilliant, glittering layer of ice; all the trees, the leftover brown leaves blown up against the fence; the fence, each individual blade of dried grass, the patio, the picnic table, each saggy branch and twig of the apple tree, the empty bird nest, the leftover stalks jutting up out of the garden,the tomato cages, the tangle of dead bean and morning glory vines twisting up the fence, Aunt Aggy's rosebushes, the clothesline poles. Everything outside shimmered and glimmered and glowed and sparkled; bright sun reflected off every surface, scattering bits of light.

"Blades of grass were individually wrapped in ice - like glass, like sugar coating - each separate from the rest, as if this was the way you were really supposed to see a lawn; blades of grass, each unique, each gleaming and wonderful and special. I had seen these trees out my window a million times, but never as splendid as this. A quick wind set the scene swaying and sparkling, like the shift of a kaleidoscope. I was afraid to step away from the window, afraid this beautiful world would disappear (as indeed it would - sunlight; warmer weather; people walking across the grass, footsteps crunching the icy blades, arms knocking branches). But right now, it is all here in front of me.

"Was an ice storm a miracle" Or was it just an ice storm, just weather, just what happened when raindrops fell into colder air, turning into sleet? Was this the world as it truly was?...."