This book was the last present to me from my husband. I saved it to read until now, half a year since his passing. He watched the movie late one night last March, after I’d already gone to bed, and loved it so much that he went to Chapters and ordered me the book. I knew it held significance to him, so I postponed reading it until a time when I was able to take it in and think about the reasons Sid wanted to share it with me.
Shortly after Sid ordered the book, Canada was suddenly shut down due to COVID-19. At the same time, his physical condition was deteriorating rapidly from pancreatic cancer. So our concentration was on these things and we almost forgot about the book. Finally when covid restrictions lightened up they phoned a couple of times to say the book had arrived at Chapters, and I took a few minutes away from tending my dear to go pick it up.
I remember watching the sitcom of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir a few times in the sixties. But the book seemed more serious. Did you know ‘muir’ means ‘the sea’? And Mrs. Muir’s first name, Lucy, or Lucia, means light. She was a little woman whose husband had recently died. She moved to a small town by the sea with her two young children to establish her own life, away from controlling in-laws. An introvert by nature, here she could live a quiet life.
She found an affordable house to rent, offered cheap because it was haunted by a sea captain who used to own it. The captain became her friend. Was he real or a figment of her imagination? At any rate, it was his idea that she write a book.
I can see why Sid wanted me to read this story. I totally relate to Mrs. Muir. Like her, I love living near the ocean. It restores my soul. Like Mrs. Muir, there was a time in my life when I needed to find myself, away from others. Like her, I enjoy the simple things of life, like walking with my dog or puttering in a garden with a few roses. I also enjoy working on a book I’m writing.
Plus there’s the theme of being a widow. In my case I wonder if Sid was thinking he would come and converse with me like the captain and Mrs. Muir did. Indeed I have found comfort in talking to Sid over the last six months since he passed. Whether he really hears me or not is kind of beside the point. I recall things he used to say, and things we enjoyed together. And cry because I miss his physical presence. But I haven’t forgotten that we were often at odds with one another, just the way Mrs. Muir was with the captain. You’ll have to read it to see what I mean. I’m glad to know I’m not the only person who gets cranky like that.
This book reminds me of one I recently read–Love, Anthony, by Lisa Genova. Also about a young mother living by the sea. Also with a theme of enjoying the simplicity of life without trying to please others by doing and accomplishing things all the time.
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