Before
We Were Yours
By
Lisa Wingate
QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION
pg. 3
pg. 3
Outside, the breeze is
weary, and the cicadas throb in the tall trees, their verdant hiding places
just below the window frames.
Pg. 3
In my multi-fold years
of life, I have learned that most people get along as best they can. They don't
intend to hurt anyone. It is merely a terrible byproduct of surviving.
Pg.8
I do anything for him,
but I hope it's many more years before we're forced to reverse the roles of
parent and child. I've learned how hard that is while watching my father
struggle to make decisions for his mother.
Pg. 8
We are heartsick about
where this cruel descent into dementia might end. Before we moved her to the
nursing home, my grandmother escaped from her caretaker and her household
staff. She called a cab and vanished for an entire day only to find they be
found wandering in a business complex that was once her favorite shopping mall.
How she managed this when she can't remember our names is a mystery.
Pg. 10
Anger and blame are
powerful weapons.
Pg. 10
Technically, they've
known him longer than I have, and they are almost as devoted.
pg. 11
This is what it's
possible when love is real and strong, when people are devoted to one another,
when those sacrifice anything to be together. This is what I want for myself,
but I sometimes wonder if it's possible for our modern generation. We're so
distracted so... busy.
Pg. 14
On occasion, it is as
if the latches in my mind have gone rusty and worn. The doors fall open and
close at will.
Pg. 22
There's such a sense
if recognition there. She's certain she knows who I am.
For a second, I want
to be Fern, just to make her happy -
Pg. 24
...rolling her eyes to
let me know that, while this little joke may have been cute when she was nine,
it's lame now that she has officially reached the double digits.
Pg. 26
One of the best things
a father can do for his daughter is to let her know that she has met his
expectations. My father did that for me, and no amount of effort on my part can
ever repay the debt.
Pg. 32
I remember May
Crandall's blue eyes, the way she regarded me with such desperation.
Pg. 32
I'm still thinking
about May Crandall and remembering the plethora of newspaper stories about
nursing home abuse. Perhaps I just wanted to make sure that May didn't come to
me because she is in some so sort of trouble.
Pg. 36
Only Camellia would
use something like that to try to get her way. It makes me sick just thinking
about it.
Pg. 36
Queenie begged Bring
to go up to the shore and take care of the body, but Bring wouldn't. We got the
kids to think about, Queen, he said. No tellin' who did that to him or who's
watchin'. We best get on down the river.
Pg. 37
Camillia's eaten
enough soap to clean up the inside of a whale in her ten years. She's practically
been raised on it. It's a wonder bubbles don't pour out her ears.
Pg. 54
"Well, good
mornin' to you, Miss Rosy Ray a' Sunshine." Zede calls Camellia that all
the time on account of she's the exact opposite of that very thing.
Pg. 57
"Be glad if you
got a nice Mama and Daddy." Silas looks hard at her. "Don't ever get
it in your head to leave them behind, if they're good to you. Some sure enough
ain't."
Pg. 78
From behind the iron
fence, boys and girls of all sizes watch. Not a single one smiles.
Pg. 79
"Aren't they a
pitiful lot?" Miss Tann says. "I do believe we removed them just in
time."
Pg. 92
"It's kinda
creepy, Aunt Aves. Nobody's there, but all Grandma Judy's stuff is still
around."
Pg. 93
Blunt- force grief
strikes me as I pull into the drive and step from the car. Everywhere I look,
there's a memory.
Pg. 93
The floorboards
crackle beneath me, and I jump, even though it's an old familiar sound.
Pg. 94
Never week passed that
she didn't care for a document that details of her days, keeping track of
everyone she saw, what she wore, what was served at meals.
Pg. 94
"Someday you'll
read these and know all my secrets," she told me once when I asked her why
she was so meticulous about writing everything down.
Pg. 96
"Not the
slightest bit of doubt." Did she really feel that way? Did you really
just... know it was right when she met my grandfather?
Pg. 112
She's a pillar of the
community and a fixture at the Methodist church. She would never, ever keep a
secret from the family. Unless that secret is something that could hurt
us. And that's exactly what scares me.
Pg. 161
But when Granddad
learned he'd been lied to all of his life, that was the last straw. He joined
the army the next day and never talk to his adoptive parents again. He looked
for his birth family for years but never found them.
Pg. 260
Instantly, I'm back in
the thick of it. I smell pipe tobacco, old newspaper clippings, dried-out
bulletin boards, peeling paint, faded photos.
Pg. 316
I always wondered what
he might have become. Perhaps it was for the best that I never knew. I was
growing into a different life, different world, different name.
Pg. 316
May's story had made
Arney and Silas and all the people of the river real to me.
Pg. 317
People don't come into
our lives by accident.
Pg. 317
A woman's past need
not predict her future. She can dance to new music if she chooses.
