I started reading They May Not Mean to, But They Do by Cathleen Schine the week before my grandpa passed away. That random timing made this book pretty emotional for me.
Schine tells the story of Joy, an aging woman, who struggles to maintain her independence through a husband’s decline, two grown children who think they know what’s best, and her own physical limitations. Joy’s husband of sixty-some years passes away after a few hard years, and her two grown children try to make decisions for Joy as she wades through life as a widow.
Joy’s story is realistic, funny, and heartbreaking–I felt some of her struggle so intensely as we, my extended family, began caring for my widowed grandmother. Hearing Joy’s point of view as she tried to find her own way and then with her children “helping” made me very sensitive to my grandma’s plight.
They May Not Mean to But They Do by Cathleen Schine is an enjoyable book about getting old, how lives change, and how some people don’t. There are really funny parts and really sad parts. Just like in real life.
Just Like Your Trusty
[…] efore my grandpa passed away. That random timing made this book pretty emotional […]