I recently read a book by Sophie Kinsella (author of the Shopaholic books), called Twenties Girl. I read ALOT, and this book is going to be in my top 10 favs. I stayed up on night until 1am finishing reading this, and by the end of the book I was bawling. Without giving too much about the book away, the book is about a twenty something girl whose 105 year old great aunt passes away. The great aunt never married, never had any kids, and her surviving family members didn't even really know her as she lived for over 20 years in a nursing home after a stroke. Basically, after the aunt (Sadie) dies, she comes back as a ghost as she is upset about a missing necklace, but instead of a old lady ghost, she's a 23 year old ghost. Only the main character, Lara, can see her, and as she only met her great aunt once as a small child, so she gets to know her great aunt and help her solve a mystery of where her necklace is.
The main character becomes very close with her great aunts ghost, learns about the great love of Sadie's life, what her interests were, what she did for fun, and what life was like back in the 1920's. It made me stop and think about the people in my life that are my elders. When I look at my 91 year old grandmother I just see a frail elderly lady, with white fluffy hair, and pale wrinkly skin. I have no idea what she was like as a young adult, and I have no idea about how she met the love of her life, and if she was a fun person. I know her, but I don't know personal stuff about her. She's never really shared, and I have never have asked. Everyone has a story filled with drama and ups and downs worth telling. I guess it just made me want to know the younger selves of a lot of my family members. We spend so much of our lives trying to respect our elders, and just making polite conversation, but do we really know our elders? Would we have been friends with them?
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