Leota's Garden

I finally read a book for leisure, not for an exam or a legal opinion. My life is not so busy after all. I realized I just had to take it with me everywhere and I went and I noticed the opportunities to read presented itself. OK so I must confess, it did take a few months to finish. What? I'm a busy person. I didn't plan to read it for so long obviously, but there was just never time to pick it up, even when I carried it around in my bag everyday despite its weight. When you try reading it at the salon, the stylist would ask you to hold your head up, when you settle in to read it at home, you get a call or a knock at the door that just distracts you.

Excuses aside, I finally finished Leota’s Garden by Francine Rivers. (Big Grin). I've been done reading this 425 paged book for about a month now but I suddenly find myself missing Leota Reinhardt and her granddaughter. I was quite sad that her daughter did not have the opportunity to make amends in person and I was just so mad at the hospital worker who thought he was doing Leota a favour. I was so drawn into the book I think I became a character myself. Sometimes I even took sides.

Love, forgiveness, self-denial and all those little angry emotions we take for granted and nurse.  It’s amazing how we can unconsciously entertain some animosity towards members of our own family and let it affect our choices even in their dying years. I saw family through the eyes of an old woman. The things she would have loved to say, but just wouldn't say for the sake of peace, living alone, and surviving on social security. I saw sacrifice through the eyes of her sweet grand daughter who somehow was sweet enough to be there for a grandmother she had barely known growing up. I saw animosity through the eyes of a daughter who thought she had every reason to stay mad at her mum even when she was ageing and needed people around her.

I don’t want to be a spoiler for anyone who hasn't read Leota’s Garden, so I'm just going to recommend it as a worthy read for anyone looking for a book to read for leisure. It might start off slowly, and you may wonder where the story is headed. Perhaps that accounted for my protracted read of the book. But trust me it’s one of those books you finish reading with a ‘hmmmm’, a smile on your face and a gentle close of the book.