Somewhere She Is There
A novel of life, death, grief and life after death.
Death was very gentle when he came for me. He wore no cloak of black, he smelled not of decay, beyond the distinctive mulchy smell of the earth. He raised no bony finger towards me, his eyes did not glow red beneath his dark, empty looking hood. He came instead on a breath of fresh air through the window that was open just a fraction to the dark night air. He brought with him the scent of the dark hills beyond this valley, a scent of home.
In 2005 Charlotte loses her mother to cancer after a very brief and difficult battle. Her whole world falls apart, and in the months that follow she tries to come to terms with the loss. Her mother Margaret was her bench mark, the voice in her head, her teacher, her guide and her friend.
Nothing helps her to make sense of the huge hole the loss leaves in her soul or her family. Missing her mother terribly, she begins to write letters to her mother telling her how she is feeling what has been happening since she has been away. But somehow it feels a bit one sided to Charlotte, like a self-absorbed conversation where you never ask the other person how they are. She wants to know how things are for her mother.
Margaret may be gone, but she is never far away from Charlotte. She tells her side of the story, in the hope that Charlotte will learn to hear the truth of what has happened, and slowly the tale of both women starts to unfold.