It’s the 35th day of the tour and today we have Michelle.
“It’s finally my turn on the Reasonable Lies book tour!
A poignant story, beautifully told by @tarosewood. Jane & Karl Walden and their 13-year-old twins Robbie & Cassie are a happy family, a great marriage, great kids, great jobs, great bosses, great family, great best friend!
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, the adage “if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything” was never truer than for Jane Walden.
Several months previously, she found a lump on her breast and ignored it. When her work organised a charity health day, everyone was provided with a mammogram and this is when she discovers her bad news.
The book goes on to tell how Jane deals with her terminal diagnosis and her decision not to tell her family to protect them from unnecessary pain until absolutely necessary, explaining it away to herself as “reasonable lies”
By the time you have finished this book, not only will you have increased the shares of Kleenex with the amount of tissues you will have used to dry those tears that you promised yourself wouldn’t come but are utterly unavoidable, you will spend weeks afterwards questioning if Jane did the right thing and what would you do given the same situation?
For me, this is an impossible question to answer.
Having lost my mother to cancer many years ago, I watched her go through the pain Jane went through and I’m grateful I was able to support her through it to the end. Would I have been upset not to have been told until the end was near? Yes, for sure, but if that had been her decision, I would have respected it.
This book will stay with me for a very long time – probably forever. Although a work of fiction, it reflects a truth that too many of us either have to deal with ourselves or watch loved ones struggle with.
If you take nothing else from this story, be sure to check your boobs regularly – both men and women.
An early diagnosis is everything as far as this wretched disease is concerned. Please don’t ever forget that.
Thank you Traci for gifting me this book and allowing me to be a part of the tour.
This one gets a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars!”
