Somber Reading

I had the hankering for reading another book after a month long hiatus.  I explored the online catalog of the local library in search of a book.   I finally found one book that peaked my interest, but it had to be ordered in from another library.  

How could I wait that long?  Then I remember that one or two years ago I had picked up a book at a book exchange that I had yet to read.  I looked through the old wooden cabinet that has been in my family for generations and finally located the book.   

Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand.  The cover looked really promising with a cheery yellow patch of towel and bare feet on the sand.  National Bestseller was stamped across the top of the book.  Followed by "Three women.  Three secrets.  One long, hot summer."  

Needless to say, the book was not quite what I expected.  At one point, I almost set the book down and refused to read it.  It is good book, but one of the main characters had stage two lung cancer.  That fact alone almost stopped me from continuing with the story line.

The story is about two sisters and the best friend of one of those sisters.  They spend the summer in a tiny cottage on the island of Nantucket with one of the sisters' two young children.  The story line is complicated at times and a few more characters are added along the way- a male college student for a babysitter, husbands, boyfriends and parents.  

It is a story about coming to terms with life, turning lemons into lemonade, and finding yourself along the way.  You find yourself rooting for the characters and experience sadness to have the story end.  You learn about sisterhood, friendship, and motherhood as the characters move through their daily lives.

Part of the book made me wonder about my mom.  Did she have pain like was described by the character with stage two cancer?  How much more worse would it have been for my mom with stage four lung and brain cancer?  With the symptoms described, how did my mom not know she was sick?  Before my mom lost her short-term memory, what was she thinking?  Did she have any regrets?  And of course the biggest question of all, if my mom would of seen a doctor years earlier, could she have been saved?

I know that I will never have the answers to these questions.  But it did not make the reading of this book any easier.  Families battle cancer everyday- some lives are saved and some lives are lost.  There is no point in worrying about what we cannot control, we just have to live our lives and hope for the best.