I was fortunate enough to have W. D. Blackmon as an English comp teacher in college. I enjoyed reading these stories as a new (and renewed) look at such an inspirational professor. Some of the humor is first rate. There is, as with all penetrating prose, something both familiar and hauntingly untouchable in this work. I found it arduous, if not at times awkward, spelunking around in a wife and mother's head, but felt confident with such a skilled guide.The five stories of this book come together to take a long-view look at the evolution of a marriage as a wife struggles to keep her brain-damaged child and her aging grandfather in the home and out of institutionalized care. The author does an admirable job of keeping the writing non-sentimental yet sympathetic to both the supermom wife and her struggling, often left out husband. Touching, sometimes humorous, this is a family chronicle that you will remember.Wonderful story! Tears and laughterI absolutely loved this. Warning: Gentle spoilers ahead. I loved the very real relationship between the wife and husband. I loved the way it made me hopeful, to know that a relationship that had been so damaged was reworked into something so wonderful. Such an atypical description of a marriage, yet so much closer to "reality" than what most literature conveys. I loved the wife, with her flair for the dramatic, her self-awareness, her innate goodness and the way she accepted the role of nurturer as a vocation. Anyone who has ever cared even for one small child can relate to her revelations about what it is to be responsible for someone else's well-being, and that feeling of not having time to have even one complete thought without interruption.The characterization of the husband is also masterful. He really comes into focus by the end, instead of being this cardboard cut-out of a "bad husband.". The observations about how the relationships with extended family affect a marriage were astute.Lastly, the interchanges between Becky's grandad and Mr. Jackson had me rolling-- sweet, hysterical, poignant.