We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg

Do you know someone who's life story would make a great biography or the basis for a best-selling novel?  What will become of that person's story?  How will it be told?  Who will hear it?

Well, Marianne Burke chose her favorite novelist, told her about her mother's story, send her a photo of her mother, and asked her to write the story any way she liked, as long as she mentioned her mother's love of Scrabble.

And Elizabeth Berg did write that story- a little bit of truth, and a lot of imagination later...

"It's the summer of 1964 in Tupelo, Mississippi.  As tensions mount over civil rights demonstrations across the state, 14 year old Diana Dunn is trying to live a normal life.  She wants to make money for clothes and magazines, to figure out the puzzle that is boys, and to escape the oppressiveness she sees everywhere in her small town.  What she can never escape, however, is her ongoing responsibility to assist in carein for her mother, Paige.  Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy, Paige is charming, intelligent, and lively, but her needs are arduous and formidalble - especially her reliance on her daughter and Peacie, her tough-talking black caregiver." (from the back cover)

Some passages are so raw they will make you flinch - but the bonds of motherly love, and the ties that bind real family together will inspire you!