Mary Schramski, Falling Out of Bed

Falling Out of Bed

Mary Schramski

Harlequin Next, May 2006, $5.50

ISBN: 037388091X

Her father Stanley has always been a healthy workaholic horse until now. At seventy-two Stanley has cancer so his daughter Melinda, though in denial, brings him to live with her. Melinda who already quit her job as a schoolteacher since her spouse David has been successful plans to care for her ailing dad.

David resents Melinda's attention given to Stanley and is upset that they never really spoke about this. Melinda's mother, divorced from Stanley, has mixed feelings about her ex's health. However Melinda and her dad forge a strong relationship and she begins to realize that you live only once so don't waste it snoozing, but the cost of her lesson could prove great.

FALLING OUT OF BED is a complex family drama that focuses on the impact of a debilitating lethal illness on the prime caretaker and indirectly on others in her inner circle. Melinda struggles with seeing how helpless and hopeless her father has fallen while David feels guilt in spite of logically understanding why he still resents the attention his wife gives to his father-in-law. The other support cast members seem real as they, like Melinda and David, can get frustrated with Stanley. Yet interestingly with the struggles to decide what is right for everyone in a situation with no chance for win-win, this tale contains a brilliant underlying message of hope and faith that aging boomers will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner