auntieannie

A quick read -- I liked the first half better somehow. Sarah, 70ish, comes to grips with her husband Charles' death. They had a long and good marriage, with one bad spell after her stillborn son. She goes on to have another boy (having 2 girls already), but she and Charles are estranged, although living together for a few years. Charles has a difficult relationship with his grown son, who had a rebellious youth. They reconcile when Charles' CPR rescues David's stepdaughter Hannah, 3 years old,after she falls into an ice pond on the property at Thanksgiving. After Charles dies, the second half of the book is about how Sarah fills up her home with a number of misfits who are seeking refuge. Her 15 year old granddaughter Lottie, who has a difficult relationship with her mother Charlotte, Sarah's daughter. Sarah also has a difficult relationship with Charlotte and tries to heal it somewhat through this process. Lottie brings along a couple of friends who are having difficulty with their parents as well. Jordan and Angelo. A friend asks if her cousin Morchedai from Israel can rent the cabin on the property for a year to write a book while he is on sabbatical. Sarah takes in a temporarily displaced family, Bob, Sandy and their 4 year old son Tyler when they lose heat in their trailer. Later, Bob is badly burned in a fire at the trailer, and Sandy and Tyler return to Sarah's to live for months while Bob is in the hospital dying. Then another friend asks Sarah to take in her daughter Josie and her infant son Andrew (the name of Sarah's stillborn son), escaping from an abusive relatonship. The house runs like a commune, and somehow everyone gets along and does their share, freeing Sarah up to wander through the woods and take photographs. Her life becomes very different after Charles' death, but she feels at peace. I found the first half of the book more satisfying, but it was interesting to see how she pulls all the characters together with their various reconciliations in the second half.