F for Father

In Marie’s Pledge, Marie struggles to come to terms with many things, not the least of which is her mother’s death, long ago:

Then, of course, comes the question of how dare I? How dare I be so selfish, so self-centered that my mother’s death was all about me? What about her? Maybe she was worn out from years of raising two daughters and God knows we, neither Julie nor I, were the easiest to raise. How often did we complain about things other kids had that she couldn’t afford to do for us? Did either of us, while we were busy grumbling about having to save our own money in high school to go on that damn trip to Washington DC, stop and think about how hard she worked, at three part-time jobs to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads? Did we ever truly thank her? Even once we were adults, did we say that we appreciated her hard work, her struggle? When Julie reconnected with our father did she ever confront him about not being there for us, for mom?

I just don’t know. I don’t know where to take these feelings, what to do with them, how to flush them out of my mind, out of my heart. Why does life have to be so difficult, so complicated?  ~excerpt from Marie’s Pledge

We all have stuff to deal with, don’t we? And life continues to offer us opportunities to do so.

If you haven’t ordered your copy of Marie’s Pledge yet, you can do so here.