For One More Day

Charley "Chick" Benetto, a former professional baseball player, stumbles across all sorts of problems involving his finances, family and alcohol. He hits his final limit after discovering he won't be invited to his only daughter's wedding. Chick decides to take away his own life. He takes a midnight ride to his small hometown, his final journey. When he tries to commit suicide by throwing himself from a water tower, but nothing happens. But when Chick drags his legs to his old house, he is in shock... His mother - Pauline "Posey" Benetto - who died eight years earlier - is there, and along with Charley: they reflect back to their past and present life.

I really love this book, it features mortality as a theme: on one ordinary day that many of us aspire for: a day to reunite with a departed relative, to seek family secrets and forgiveness for the old times. It is heartbreaking and beautiful, the book seeks compassion with who has suffered from the unstable life, only to realise how much about the life of a beloved one was unknown and how sympathetic it was. We always have issues with our moms, but deep inside they are always there for us and always have a shoulder for you to rely on.

“This is a story about family and, as there is a ghost involved you might call it a ghost story. But every family is a ghost story. The dead sit at our tables long after they have gone.” (For One More Day)