All That Matters by Jan Goldstein

I have been reading a lot lately trying to put winter behind me. I happened upon a book titled All That Matters by Jan Goldstein. This is a novel about a young woman who attempts suicide and how her grandmother, who survived the Holocaust is able to reach her. I won't give you full details because I don't want to give away the plot, however the book really got me thinking about a couple of things. First of all, life is a great gift. Sometimes we say "life if too hard" or we wonder why our lives don't turn out the way we think they should. Regardless of how difficult they are we get them --WE GET TO LIVE! What a wonderful gift.

The second thing I have been thinking is how much we owe our lives to our ancestors. We are here because of the things that they did and went through. They tried and learned and endured. Also, we inherit many of their characteristics. I once saw a film of my husband when he was a little boy and I was stunned at how much my daughter Anne was like him. She moves her arms and sits on the floor and turns her head the same way. Last week she was in the kitchen whistling and I yelled "Steven, are you home?" My grandma, Inez, met my grandpa when she went to a small rural area to teach school. I am sure that I owe my love of the mountains to this set of grandparents. I have Inez to thank for my love of fabric and also my inability to sit still.