I did a lot of writing on Mother's Day. I focused more on Lizzy, the mom in the story after Adrien, Daniel's best friend's funeral.
Adrien was given a military funeral after dying heroically in Iraq at the age of only eighteen.
I had not been able to relate to Lizzy, but I finally did understand her. The death of Adrien had caused her to begin drinking again after a long period of sobriety or people in twelve step programs would say she drank because she wanted to, but this is not about AA jargon, but life and drinking is addressed very little in my book.
After coming out of her binge, straightening out and going back to work, she begins helping a young woman who is very poor and hiding from an abusive husband from South Carolina. This girl is also legally blind like Daniel and has a twin sister who is legally blind and between the two they have six kids under the age of ten. Lizzy loses herself in helping Norine who has come all the way to Vermont. She also finally goes to see Jill, the mother of Adrien, who she had drifted away from over the years. I think she needed to relate to other women more for me to know who she was.
Then when the whole family goes to Framingham to spend Thanksgiving with the grandparents who are very rich, I was listening to the Joni Mitchell song, Rainy Night House, which revealed to me the reason for the estrangement, that had finally been broken down. This is why I quote the song,
"you are a refugee from a wealthy family, you gave up all the golden factories to see who in the world you might be."
Joni Mitchell
Then I focus mostly on Daniel again. I think he is most important in the story having retinitis pigmentosa and being a great musician, although his younger brother Nicolas is autistic and suffers from seizures.
I have told a lot about it, but no more than a book jacket. Now that my book is finished I am not sure where to direct my energy.
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