Like Water Slipping Through My Fingers

Book excerpt: “No use living if you can’t be happy,” says the main character, Doris. Her words are prophetic. In the meantime, free-spirited Doris works hard at having fun and brings the author, her teenage babysitter, Tina, along for the ride. Doris is not the kind of woman Tina’s protective father and grandfather, a preacher with an eye for the ladies, approve of. That is, she is not a sweet little demure housewife. When her father-in-law complains that she is not acting like a lady, Doris counters, “To hell with ladies!” The author takes the reader on an initial joyful and unconventional journey and along divergent paths of family relationships, Jim Crowism, tragedy, loss, and love. The author says this book is payment for the debt she owes to Doris for her caring sisterhood when she was a young girl suffering a great loss and for the good times.