Book Launch in 4 days!
Today’s post about “Finding Home”: Yesterday I connected the January 9th launch day with my mother’s birthday. Today I’m going in a different direction. Moms are moms, and nothing will change that unique role in our lives regardless of how well equipped or how loving or capable they carry out that role. Tyler’s mom clearly falls short of the Hallmark version of a mother. Maybe you would connect with how he wrestles with his mom being the immature, pain-inducing person she is while never forgetting that she is his mom. Family relationships are not simple, at least that has been my experience. They are not packaged neatly with kisses and hugs and ‘we all understand each other’ balloons flying around. Finding Home is very much a story about the messiness of family and the personal strength it takes for Tyler to go beyond all that is against him, to make the life he builds better than the one he’s been shown.
He sounds just like me when I was that age.
Today’s excerpt from “Finding Home”:
Hospitals are not on my list of favorite places. There’s the whole idea of the balance between life and death that smells like antiseptic. Not a terrible smell, just a smell. I’ve only been down a hall and up one elevator. Already, I’ve had enough.
“You arrived at the right time,” a nurse tells us. “She just moved out of the ICU.”
“Oh, my God!” Mom says when we arrive at her bedside.“JJ!”
He pulls himself up to stand on the edge of her bed, holding onto the railing. “Mama,” he asks, “are you going to die?”
“No, honey, I’m not. Come get a hug.” But it’s not a hug–it’s a hand on his shoulder. “Get off the bed now,” Mom coaxes him. He eyes a package of crackers on her nightstand.
“Can I have those?” he asks.
“Yes, sweetie, go ahead.”
Jason busies himself with opening the crackers. Mom turns her eyes to me.
I take a deep breath. “What happened?”
“It wasn’t my fault,” she says.
“I’m not talking about the damn accident!” I raise my voice, then turn to the window. Why did I ask when I don’t want to know the answer?
“It’s not what you think,” she says.
It never is. “Tyler, please,” she says. “Look at me.”
I turn around. “Is it because I left?”
“No!” she says emphatically. “No, Tyler, it’s not you. It was only once anyway. It was my bad luck that the other guy ran the light. Really. Just once.”
I’ve heard this kind of talk before. It’s once and never again until the next “once.”
“I guess there’s no point in our having this conversation, is there?”
She puts her hand over her eyes again. “Tyler, please don’t think badly of me. I’m hurting. I need you to believe me. Please.” She lifts her red, watery eyes to me.
“Don’t cry, Mama,” Jason says, his voice plaintive and sweet.
Be sure to come back tomorrow for another excerpt!
Have a great day, Clare
https://claregraith.com/
https://www.amazon.com/author/clare.graith
Clare Graith 