Review: An exceptional story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 20, 2011
ONE MORE WINTER by Rebecca K. O'Connor is a beautifully written and exceptional story that came from the author's heart and struck mine.  The carefully worded conversations between mother and daughter felt familiar and Mary's taking care of animals hit along the road brought back some memories . The cracked driveway and the almost-leaky roof are such everyday matters, but things that are part of our lives that need attention, and can often spark either arguments or silence when begging for a solution.  Mary went through all of these things with her daughter.  The MIA bracelets fit in well as something tangible left from a war that was over a long time ago, but the person whose name was on the bracelets that had been sent back to Mary and Theresa, her daughter, were a symbol of a life that they had grieved for and like the lake, went away and wasn't coming back. The bracelet brought back memories of one that I wore.Mary's loneliness is apparent and also her compassion for animals when she calls Rebecca about her dog that she finds. After ending the phone conversation, Mary feels that Rebecca won't be a friend, and I think Mary was hoping she would.  Somewhere along the way, we've probably all hoped for someone to be a friend who wasn't interested in friendship, and that seems like a loss of its own.The layers of grief in the story are handled in such a beautiful way by the author and I plan to seek out more of her writing. Mary and Theresa are characters who are very believable and realistic. Be sure to read what the author has written after the story ends.  It makes the story even more powerful.