Writing can make a difference

Bestselling author by Debbie Macomber wrapped her recent story about family, forgiveness and love in Last One Home, around difficult social issues such as domestic abuse and homelessness.

Published in 2015, the book begins with a quick look back at ten-year-old Cassie playing with her two sisters. Then we move to a courtroom, where she is helping a victim of domestic abuse and begin to learn about her life of abuse until fear for her life and that of her seven-year-old daughter had her flee out the window of her home and seek assistance at a women’s shelter. There she received help and job training.

Throughout the book, we learn the difficult life Cassie lived after running off with her boyfriend when she was 18 and pregnant. As is often with people who want to control someone else, he moved her away from her family and friends. Besides losing her college scholarship and family support, gradually she lost her confidence and self-respect.

Trying to get her life back together, one of her sisters contacts Cassie about some of their parent’s furniture they had stored, if she would come get it. Thrilled to hear from her sisters and needing the furniture, she still faced the problem of picking it up with no truck and no extra money to rent one.

Living in a tiny, cheap apartment, she is thrilled when she accepted as a candidate by Habitat for Humanity. We learn about the stringent requirements as well as the need to volunteer hundreds of hours of work to be eligible for a Habitat home.

We also get glimpses into the minds of her daughter, now 12, her sisters and a possible romantic interest during her constant struggle for a better life.

For more information about the author and her books, check out DebbieMacomber.com.

On a more personal note, Maryland author B. Morrison, tells about a life that was similarly sidetracked in Innocent, Confessions of a Welfare Mother.

She was raised in a prosperous Baltimore neighborhood and a college graduate, but when her marriage failed, Morrison found herself an impoverished single mother of two small sons. She found herself “…forced to accept the handout so disdained by her parents and their world: welfare. This dramatic memoir tells how one woman finds and grasps the lifeline that ultimately enables her to become independent.” (The last two sentences are from the back cover of her book).

For more information, check out www.bmorrison.com.

Whether a true story or fiction, books such as these help us understand the need for various social programs and the people who must temporarily depend on them. I would recommend both books and congratulate the authors for tackling such difficult subjects.