24 November 2014

Review #85: Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


According to Wikipedia:

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neuro-degenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline and behavioral symptoms. It typically becomes noticeable in mid-adult life.

And after reading Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer, who is a Canadian author, I can't stop myself from penning down the following spectacular and moving poem written by an anonymous boy for his "Huntington's-stricken" mother: 







She tried to hide it
   But it didn’t take long
Before I began to notice
That something was wrong.

I was still young,
So I didn’t understand
What could be causing
The tremors in her hand

I was confused
And I didn’t know why
Dropping something
Would cause her to cry

Is this my fault?
Is it something I did?
I thought it was because
I was a bad kid

Year after year
I saw her get worse
It’s painful to watch
The disease takes its course

Sometimes she’d get snappy
She would be hard to please
I had to remember
It was just the disease

Where did my mom go?
Will she ever be back?
She’s trapped in her body
And it’s under attack

Her movements are jerky
Her arms are always flailing
I cry because I know
Her body is failing

Now, she can’t walk
And she struggles to stand
The things that she says
I can’t understand

I admire her courage
And I will always love her
No matter what happens
There are angels above her

I have to be strong
I do my best to care for her
I love her so much
I will always be there for her

My little sister is 10
And I try to keep her protected
I try to keep things normal
But I know she’s been affected

I’m worried about my sister
On the outside I’m calm
But she needs more than I can give her
And I can’t be her mom

Sometimes I feel hopeless
I have to get through this
I’m scared, and I’m not sure
How much longer I can do this

Sometimes I wish
My dad were still here
It’s weird how some people
Can just disappear.

I need to stay strong
And I worry everyday
That someone will come
And take my mom away

I wonder what she’s thinking
If she’s even aware
But then I look in her eyes
I can tell she’s still there

I can’t ignore the facts
But I wish they weren’t true-
There’s a 50% chance
That I have the gene, too

In my hands I will get
A tingling vibration
Is it a symptom?
Or just my imagination?

I try not to worry
About what’s unforeseen
I have lots of time-
I’m only fifteen.

Sometimes I leave
And go out with my friends
But then I feel guilty.
The guilt never ends.

If there is a God,
Why is he so mean?
Why curse our family
With this terrible gene?

I’m sick of this disease,
Of all the pain and frustration
If I test positive, I swear
I’ll be the last generation.

In a life of uncertainty
There’s one thing I’m sure-
One day, some day,
There will be a cure.

I know, I too was moved and touched by this anonymous boy's pain and grief for his mother. Julie Lawson Timmer too has channeled the same emotions and pain in her debut book, Five Days Left. But here we see two stories told parallely by the protagonists, which are equally emotional and heart-rending. This book is bound to bring out a tear at the corner of your eyes, since in the end, it made me left in tears. I was so wishing for a twist- a complete turnover of the painful story to a happy-ending. Alas! Huntington's disease is a killer and it still has no cure still to this day!

Synopsis:
Mara Nichols, a successful lawyer, and devoted wife and adoptive mother, has recently been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy’s mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most. Through their stories, Julie Lawson Timmer explores the individual limits of human endurance, the power of relationships, and that sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go.

Two stories, equally powerful- one about letting go of someone you love the most and the other of holding on to someone you love the most. The author has shed the light of pain and fear of losing someone you love with such brilliance, that the fear and pain will come out from the pages of the book and will grip you till the end of the book. The author has even enlightened us with the deadly disease called Huntington’s disease and how it can shatter a beautiful life. Even she out-rules the fact the children are tortured in their foster homes by portraying a marvelous man named Scoot- a middle school teacher and foster father to a young boy named, Curtis, who loved Curtis so much that in the end, when it was time for Curtis to leave, it finally shattered his own world with his wife, Laurie. Both the families, Mara's and Scott's had five days left to say goodbyes to the ones they loved.

The author has not only told her story with profound brilliance, but has also managed to stir up all our emotions in this five days story of Scott and Mara. How emotional a human being can react when he/she gets to know there is only five days to wrap up their lives. I was left more touched by Scott's story, because in case of Mara, we knew that Huntington's was a killer disease, and she eventually will die at some day, but in case of Scott, it was something so real yet painful and poignant.

Both Scott and Mara and their family members Tom, Laurie, Curtis and Laks all turned out to be someone who will strike you as if you happen to know that person in your everyday life. Each and every moment of Mara's life from getting diagnosed with Huntington's to stripped down of her dignity in a departmental drug store to finding a friend in a random cab driver named Harry to finding peace within herself and with the disease to accepting the disease, everything has been describe very intricately and with utmost compassion.

The author's prose is simple yet subtle, and that makes the whole journey of reading this book more easy and comfortable. And from the very first page, I got arrested with author's style of smooth narration among her protagonist.

Verdict: A must read for everyone, and you will be amazed to see that how a painful journey of two human beings will leave your heart fill with grief and joy.

Courtesy: I'm very thank to the author's publishers from CENTURY, for providing me with a copy of her novel, in return for an honest review.
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Author's Info:
Julie Lawson Timmer grew up in Stratford, Ontario, and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband Dan, their four teenaged children and two badly-behaved labs. By day, she works as in-house legal counsel. By night, she is a writer, mom and stepmom, dreadful cook and fledgling CrossFitter. FIVE DAYS LEFT is her first novel.
Visit her here

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