When Nina, a former art teacher, gives up her apartment to move into an assisted living facility, she struggles with the feeling that life is now over for her, and all she is left with are special memories.
Megan, forty, with a successful career in marketing, a loving second husband, two daughters and a nice home, is on top of life – until things go very wrong in all directions, one of which being her relationship with her oldest daughter, teenager Penny.
Penny finds herself always arguing with her stepfather Steve, and tells herself life would be so much better if her dad was still about. And her mother is increasingly distant and unsympathetic as she grapples with her own problems.
Three women, three generations, each with very real and highly relatable struggles.
Then an ‘incident’ at Penny’s school forces her to write to an unknown resident at the assisted living facility as community service. From this unpromising start, closed gates slowly creak open to bring the generations together in a potholed, emotional journey of self-discovery.
I was engrossed following the twists and turns in the road as these women haltingly discover their inner strength through sharing and at times a grudging willingness to be open. So many times I wanted to either shout at or cheer these characters, because nothing is certain here.
It’s not just the major players who become very real. Ms Small also gives us a cast of secondary characters with their own charms and irritations, which adds significant depth to the tale. Overlay that with an ability to set the scene – from the shady gardens and bustling day room of Shadow Oaks itself, to Penny’s bedroom where the cat lies on the bed, ears always open to Penny’s spoken thoughts – and the story unfolds in the reader’s mind like a film.
I always expect beautiful writing from Ms Small and Letters is certainly no exception. Letters from Shadow Oaks is a compassionate tale which will leave you with a warm sense of optimism and the certainty that, however young or old you are, positive change is always possible.
Find Letters from Shadow Oaks here.