The Second Sister

by Marie Bostwick

Lucy works as a political campaigner, devoting most of her time to her work and little time to herself.  Alice, her sister is almost two years older than her and has a brain injury that makes her seem younger than her 38 years.  Alice wants Lucy to return to their small town in Wisconsin but Lucy wants nothing to do with returning to the town with bad memories.  Then Alice dies and the terms of her will include Lucy spending 8 weeks in their hometown before she can inherit their childhood home.  I enjoyed this book a lot.

Quotes

Chapter 9, beginning on p. 57, offers great insight to our experience of having a loved-one die.  It’s too long to include as a quote.

Alice’s friend Rinda recounts being new in town, looking for inexpensive fabric for the back of a quilt at a quilt shop, and having Alice follow her around “talking a blue streak.”  Rinda was being careful about money, pulled out a bolt of yellow-green fabric that she thought might be okay for backing.  “So Alice sees this stuff and says, ‘That’s the ugliest fabric I ever saw in my life.  Why would you buy that?’  I told her it might be ugly, but it was only two dollars a yard.’
  “Rinda’s eyes crinkled at the corners.  ‘And then Alice puts her hand on my arm and looks at me all serious and says, ‘Rinda, it is possible to pay too little for fabric.’”    p. 193-194

  “‘All these people who piece their tops but hire somebody else to do the finishing. . .  Hmph.  They’re not quilters.  They’re toppers!’ she declared, curling her lip in a way that made it sound almost like a dirty word.”
    p. 254  ¶5

nm