“I can’t believe you have a daughter here, Carmen,” said Heather. “It feels like just yesterday we were walking across the stage to get our diploma, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed,” agreed Carmen.
“Yes, but they didn’t tell us the road was long and winding, did they?” said Heather.
“Amen, sister. To be fair, our alma mater does mention roaming the girdled earth. I think we checked the ‘roaming’ box.” Carmen laughed. Then she said more seriously, “I wonder if things will be easier for Avery than they were for us.”
“I don’t know,” said Martha. “I’m not sure we are where we need to be on women’s issues at all.”
“Agreed,” replied Heather a little sadly. “And you and I aren’t where we need to be. I know that, and I promise to work on it. Missing your daughter’s funeral was a terrible thing. Please let me make it up to you.”
“Thanks, Heather,” said Martha, “I’d like that. And I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when Phil died.”
“Well, women may not be where we want to be, but we are trying,” Elizabeth pointed out with optimism in her voice. “At least I am, in my own limited way. I think we women are just at the beginning of our moment. I mean, think about it—our own mothers wouldn’t have been able to go to college here. And their mothers were born just as women were getting the right to vote.”
As the chimes rang out over their alma mater, the women fell into a contemplative silence.
“I wonder what’s next for us,” said Heather.
“I really thought when I was Avery’s age that you sort of fell off a cliff after forty, you know, in terms of doing anything interesting,” replied Sara.
“Speak for yourself,” said Carmen. “My life is beginning at forty. And trust me, it’s very, very interesting,” Carmen teased.
“Gross,” Martha complained as one of the reunion photographers ran up to take their picture in front of Baker Library.
As he lifted his camera, the five of them linked arms and Heather said, “You know, that whole rebirth at forty gives me a great idea for my next book.”
“Heather!” they all exclaimed at her in unison as the photographer snapped the picture of them glaring at their friend.
No biggie, thought Sara. Our twenty-fifth is right around the corner. We’ll get another chance at the picture.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A heartfelt thank-you to the following members of my far-flung tribe, many of whose stories inspired this book, and all of whom believed in it, right from the start: Elizabeth, Kathleen, Donna, Dermot, Anita, Adie, Brandy, Jackson, Niamh, Dana, Angela, Cat, Heidi, Jessie, Mary, Deborah, Erin, Holly, Brian, Amy, Ellen, and whomever else my mom-brain forgot!
And thank you to my parents and especially my husband, who have always supported my big dreams.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo credit: Amy Pearson Studios, LLC
Laura Jamison is an attorney from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband and their four children. When she is not practicing law or writing, she is driving her kids to one of their many activities in her minivan. Laura is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan Law School. This is her first book.
SELECTED TITLES FROM SHE WRITES PRESS
She Writes Press is an independent publishing company founded to serve women writers everywhere.
Visit us at www.shewritespress.com.
Center Ring by Nicole Waggoner. $17.95, 978-1-63152-034-1. When a startling confession rattles a group of tightly knit women to its core, the friends are left analyzing their own roads not taken and the vastly different choices they’ve made in life and love.
Play for Me by Céline Keating. $16.95, 978-1-63152-972-6. Middle-aged Lily impulsively joins a touring folk-rock band, leaving her job and marriage behind in an attempt to find a second chance at life, passion, and art.
Again and Again by Ellen Bravo. $16.95, 978-1-63152-939-9. When the man who raped her roommate in college becomes a Senate candidate, women’s rights leader Deborah Borenstein must make a choice—one that could determine control of the Senate, the course of a friendship, and the fate of a marriage.
Stella Rose by Tammy Flanders Hetrick. $16.95, 978-1-63152-921-4. When her dying best friend asks her to take care of her sixteen-year-old daughter, Abby says yes—but as she grapples with raising a grieving teenager, she realizes she didn’t know her best friend as well as she thought she did.
In the Heart of Texas by Ginger McKnight-Chavers. $16.95, 978-1-63152-159-1. After spicy, forty-something soap star Jo Randolph manages in twenty-four hours to burn all her bridges in Hollywood, along with her director/boyfriend’s beach house, she spends a crazy summer back in her West Texas hometown—and it makes her question whether her life in the limelight is worth reclaiming.
Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff. $16.95, 978-1-63152-976-4. A divorced mother of two gets an app on her phone that lets her be in more than one place at the same time, and quickly goes from zero to hero in her personal and professional life—but at what cost?
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