by Darcie Chan
I’m nearly eighty, Mary, and I don’t expect that I’ll live long enough to find my Grace. But you’re younger than I, and you have more resources at your disposal. Could you find it in your heart to take up the search? I have no idea whether she is still living or where she might be. She might not be alive, and if you discover as much, or if you fail to locate her, I pray you’ll not say anything to Michael, for it would break his heart all over again. But if she can be located, it would mean the world to Michael to know what happened and to meet her. After all he did for his baby sister, he deserves it.
My fondest wishes,
Anna
The second, shorter letter was written by Mary and addressed to him:
March 14, 1973
My dearest Michael,
I hesitate to even write this letter, knowing how it would upset you to read it, and not having even decided whether to give it to you, but I feel I must put what I know to paper.
I’m enclosing this note with a letter I received from your mother concerning a baby sister you once had. I won’t repeat everything in Anna’s letter here, but I wanted you to know that I used every means at my disposal to try to determine whether your sister had in fact survived and been adopted. My written inquiries and telephone calls uncovered very little information about her. I arrived at the same conclusion your mother had, that no paper records exist beyond the church record of her funeral.
I did, however, have Jack Gasaway look into the matter. I didn’t know whom else to ask, but since the Gasaways had handled my legal affairs for years, I knew I could trust them and that confidentiality wouldn’t be an issue. Jack and his son were able to travel to the Burlington area on my behalf and meet with officials of the Colchester parish. The officials put them in touch with a woman who had worked as Frank’s secretary years ago. She was quite old, but she remembered clearly one night when Frank arrived at the church with an infant and asked her to hold it. Together, she and Frank drove with the baby to New Hampshire to meet another priest waiting to take the child to an adoptive family. This woman trusted Frank implicitly, and she never questioned what he was doing or why. Unfortunately, the Gasaways weren’t able to find any further information about the baby.
I know that your mother wished you not to know anything about your sister if I couldn’t confirm that she was alive and locate her. I wanted so much to be able to do this for you, Michael. You’re my closest—my only—friend. You’ve given me so much over the years, and here was something precious—the gift of your sister—that I might be able to give to you in return. It pains me terribly that I couldn’t find her. But I believe she lived when you had been told otherwise, and that she might still be out there somewhere.
You know that I am not a devoutly religious person, but I do pray that somehow, someday, you and she will find each other again.
With all my love,
Mary
Sitting in his chair, Father O’Brien closed his eyes. It was clear that Mary had decided not to share the letter with him while she was living, or to reveal what she knew about his family and sister, but he wasn’t angry with her. He was sure she’d made the decision in order to spare him certain agony. Just as Grace had said, there had been no Internet back then, and if he’d known she was alive and couldn’t find her, it would have cast a painful shadow over decades of his life.
Mary’s face materialized in his mind. She was smiling, and he got the feeling that wherever she was, she was overjoyed. He, too, was happier than he had felt in years. For so long, he’d thought of Mary McAllister as the sister he’d never had. It seemed almost too good to be true to think that his real sister had survived, and that he had the chance to get to know her and the rest of her family—his family—in addition to the lifetime of memories he had of his time with Mary.
Father O’Brien opened his desk drawer and removed the two spoons that he now kept there: Mary’s silver teaspoon, and his mother’s clover-patterned sugar spoon. He could almost feel the warmth in his heart radiating down his arm to warm the metal in his hand. It was a sign, he was sure, that Mary and his mother were together, happy, and smiling.
He’d already accepted an invitation to spend Christmas with Grace—or Elizabeth—they hadn’t quite worked out what he should call her. But it didn’t matter. Regardless of the challenges ahead, regardless of any changes that might come with the New Year, he’d been given a bit more time on Earth. He intended to continue spending as much of it as he could with all of his family—his sister, his congregation, and his beloved community of Mill River.
For my loving family, and for everyone who has ever had to find the strength and courage to begin again.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a novel is a valuable and enjoyable experience for many reasons, not least of which is that the research required allows me to expand my understanding of subjects about which I know little or nothing. I am grateful to many people who kindly took time from their busy lives to answer my questions or direct me to information that I needed. In particular, I would like to extend my thanks to Mary Jo Kriz, executive assistant to the rector at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, Massachusetts, for information about the history of St. John’s during the 1930s and ’40s; to Irene Dey, Esq., for clarification of criminal legal procedures and lesser included offenses; to Shandra Andry, RN, CNM, for help researching the treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum in the 1920s and ’30s; to Sherri Miller, for sharing with me her deeply personal experience caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s disease; to Timothy Chan, M.D., Ph.D., for answering myriad general medical questions; to Brian Woods, for teaching me about home repair and remodeling (and home repair disasters!); and to Dennis Tomasallo, for similar information about home repair and remodeling, as well as for giving me a crash course in various tactics for and methods of hunting wild game.
I must also thank my wonderful test readers—my friends Lena Ottusch, Elizabeth SanMiguel, and Brian and Deidre Woods, as well as members of my family, namely Linda Tomasallo, Carrie Tomasallo, Molly Tomasallo, and Dennis and Susan Tomasallo. I appreciate so much the insightful and honest feedback you offered to help improve this book.
To my friend and fellow author, Elizabeth Letts, thank you for your continued advice and camaraderie. I am also grateful for the encouragement and moral support given by my close friends Angie Swedhin, Deidre Woods, Sherri Miller, Elizabeth SanMiguel, Michele Knorr, and Lena Ottusch. And, to Nina Arazoza and Jenny Stephens, assistants to my editor and agent, respectively, I know you both do a great deal behind the scenes, and I appreciate it very much.
I would like to thank my publisher, Libby McGuire, as well as Kim Hovey, Matthew Schwartz, and Jennifer Hershey. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of your support, feedback, and enthusiasm. Many thanks also to my publicist, Lindsey Kennedy, and to Susan Corcoran and Alex Coumbis in the publicity department; to my marketing manager, Maggie Oberrender, and to Kristin Fassler, who heads up the marketing department; to my production editor, Jennifer Rodriguez; to Marietta Anastassatos, the artist who designed the gorgeous cover for this book; and to the rest of the lovely and talented people at Penguin Random House and Ballantine Books, whose great care and effort have gone into the publishing and launch of this novel.
To my brilliant editor, Kara Cesare, thank you so much for another fabulous editorial experience and for loving my Mill River books as much as you do. I am thankful that our working styles and goals are so in tune, and your advice and expertise are invaluable. I couldn’t ask for a better in-house advocate or friend on the road to publication.
To my superb, longtime literary agent, Laurie Liss, thank you for your wisdom, humor, honesty, and friendship, and your tireless efforts on my behalf. I am so grateful for everything you’ve done and continue to do for me.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the members of my immediate family whose support and encouragement are constant and unfailing. To my mom, Linda, my dad and my stepmom, Dennis and Susan, my sisters, Carrie and Molly, m
y husband, Tim, and my little dude, Gavin—all of you mean so much to me! Love you always!
By Darcie Chan
The Mill River Recluse
The Mill River Redemption
The Promise of Home
PHOTO: © CARRIE SCHECHTER
Darcie Chan is the New York Times bestselling author of the eBook sensation The Mill River Recluse and the novels The Mill River Redemption and The Promise of Home. She has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. For fourteen years, Chan worked as an attorney drafting environmental and natural resource legislation for the U.S. Senate. She now writes fiction full-time and lives north of New York City with her husband and son.
darciechan.com
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A Conversation with Darcie Chan
Random House Reader’s Circle: The fictional town of Mill River, Vermont, serves as the setting for all of your novels, and many characters overlap across all three books. What was the biggest challenge in creating and maintaining such an interconnected community?
Darcie Chan: Strangely, when I was writing the first Mill River book, I had no inkling that it would become the first of at least three novels with a common setting and many common characters. It was simply my first novel, one that I hoped would be published someday.
When it became clear that I would have the opportunity to write more books set in Mill River, I had to think carefully about how to proceed. Consistency is key. Characters who appear in more than one book must be consistent across, not just within, the books. At the same time, I think it’s vital that I continue to explore and develop those characters.
I also view the town of Mill River itself as a central character in my books, if not the heart of each story. It’s important to keep the details of the town consistent—not only the physical details, such as the location of certain buildings and streets, and their positions in relation to others—but also the town’s safe, cozy, and welcoming feel.
The residents of Mill River play a large part in achieving that latter goal. As I plan each story, I’m constantly focused on which of the townspeople should be involved, which would have some connection to or know about the events taking place, and what kinds of people I might like to meet were I to actually visit the town. Should I involve a character who is already known to my readers, or should I introduce someone new? What kinds of things might happen in a small town that would involve and intrigue the people there? And why would the people of Mill River want to live there in the first place?
In a way, building the Mill River series and maintaining its interconnectedness are much like trying to re-create the structure of a hurricane. The town itself, calm and peaceful, is at the center, with the actions and stories of the town residents swirling around. Everything is held together as part of a single, consistent system. And as with the path of a hurricane, what happens in a small town like Mill River can often be unexpected or unpredictable, as my readers well know.
RHRC: What is your writing process like? What helps you when you get stuck?
DC: Before I start writing a new book, I need to have the main characters and a central plot in mind. I must also know how the story will begin, how it will end, and a few “main events” that will take place in the middle. Unless I have that bare minimum of information, I don’t feel ready to put anything on paper (or my computer screen, as is more often the case).
Once I’ve planned out the basics, I try to do a brief chapter-by-chapter outline to serve as a roadmap. Some chapters start in that outline completely blank—as was the case with my most recent novel—and I end up filling them in as the plot unfolds and ideas come to me while I’m writing.
I’ve been fortunate in that I haven’t yet had a serious case of writer’s block. I do two things to try to keep that from happening. First, I end each writing session knowing what it is that I’m going to write next. That’s hard to do sometimes—stopping when I’m on a roll—but knowing exactly how I’m going to start the next writing session makes doing it much easier. And second, before I start writing for the day, I read over and edit the pages I wrote the previous day. Doing so helps refine the draft and helps me to coast into writing whatever comes next in the story.
RHRC: Who was the first Mill River character you ever came up with? What was the inspiration behind him/her?
DC: Mary McAllister was the first character I developed, and she did indeed have a real-life inspiration.
In the 1940s, a Jewish gentleman named Sol Strauss fled Nazi Germany and settled with his mother in my hometown of Paoli, Indiana. There, he opened a dry goods store on the town square. Even though his business was successful, Mr. Strauss quietly lived alone above his shop and never seemed to be fully embraced by the town’s predominantly Christian population. Still, he considered Paoli his adopted community and its people his people. When Mr. Strauss died, the town was shocked to learn that he had bequeathed to it millions of dollars, which were to be used for charitable purposes to benefit the residents.
The Sol Strauss Supporting Organization Fund is still in operation today. Among other things, it provides clothing and additional necessities for needy children and an annual supply of new books for the high school English department. Residents of Paoli may also apply to the fund for assistance in carrying out a project that would benefit the town. The fund is the legacy of Mr. Strauss, who continues to be remembered for his extreme and unexpected generosity.
I had Mr. Strauss in mind when I was brainstorming ideas for a first novel. I thought it would be interesting and challenging to build a story around a character who is misunderstood or different in some way, and to show that even someone who is seemingly far removed from his or her community may be more special and loving than anyone could imagine. I liked the idea of an older woman peering down at a small town from her window and knowing that she was helping the people who lived there—her people—even though most of them knew little or nothing about her. This woman, of course, became the character Mary McAllister, and her life story became The Mill River Recluse.
RHRC: Do you have a favorite character? Why?
DC: I really love the character of Father O’Brien. Writing scenes involving his “spoon problem” are such fun! I also like the fact that he is an incredibly kind and gentle person, and that even at his advanced age, he’s an active and beloved member of the Mill River community.
I’m also fond of the character Emily DiSanti, first introduced in The Mill River Redemption. I suppose it’s because Emily shares some personal qualities with my youngest sister, Molly. Both love dogs—Emily’s dog, Gus, is based on a dog my sister used to have. Molly has a degree in landscape architecture, so she’s very artsy and outdoorsy, with a skill set to match. I think it’s really cool that she can drive a dump truck and refinish furniture, and she has her own hip waders for trout fishing. Molly can also grow anything. She somehow managed to raise perfect artichokes during the short, cool summers in Green Bay, Wisconsin! I really admire my sister’s self-reliant, can-do attitude, and I wanted the character of Emily DiSanti to have that same state of mind.
(I should add that my other sister, Carrie, is also a fabulous person with her own set of unique talents…which might be borrowed for a future character!)
RHRC: Readers have met Father O’Brien before, but in The Promise of Home, they find out so much more about his backstory. When did you first start to think about the details of his personal history?
DC: Over the years, many readers have written to me wanting to know why it is that Father O’Brien is so obsessed with spoons. Once I was able to turn my attention to developing the plot for my third book, I realized that I wanted to give my readers an answer to that question. Gradually, a story took shape in my mind—Father O’Brien’s story—and it seemed it would make a good addition to the two Mill River books I’d already written. I wanted to let my readers see a bit of his childhood and learn what experiences shaped him into
the priest they know. And, I wanted to contrast that historical portion of the book with events in the present to reveal how his past still had the ability to change his life.
I was fascinated by my research into living during the Great Depression. It was a time of struggle, when little was taken for granted. Children grew up much more quickly and were expected to do more at a much younger age. Father O’Brien, or Michael, as he was called back then, certainly would have experienced this, and I think that reality is borne out in this third book.
RHRC: How did you decide which Mill River residents you wanted to focus on in The Promise of Home?
DC: Once I came up with a story and plot for The Promise of Home, I knew that Father O’Brien, both as an elderly priest and as a teenager, would feature heavily. Since this book was to be crafted as the third in a series, I thought it was important to continue with certain previously established plotlines and characters. Kyle and Claudia appeared in the first two Mill River novels, and their relationship continues to evolve in this one. Both DiSanti sisters from The Mill River Redemption are put through an emotional wringer in that story, and I wanted to follow their journey—especially Emily’s—in this new book.
Of course, I am always striving to further develop the town of Mill River itself. New characters help expand and enrich the fictional community and play important roles in this new story. And I always like to let established characters make cameos in new books, even if they’re not heavily involved in the plot. My readers like to find out how and what they’re doing, and so do I!
RHRC: Do you think of your novels as having any overarching messages or themes?
DC: Although I can see certain themes—particularly emphases on the importance of kindness, family, and community—in the finished books, I don’t sit down to write a new story with any particular message or theme in mind. Rather, they seem to take shape along with the story.
