I think in reading David Baldacci’s Wish you Well, I have read one of the few books that truly touched my heart in recent times. The book has so much heart and soul in it, it makes me ask many questions about my genealogy too..
It is really admirable that Baldacci decided to take a break from his usual thriller and write novel on a family instead, got to applaud the guy!
Some truly nice quotes from the book:
In one of Jack Cardinal’s letters to his grandmother- “I will never forget that the passing down of memories is the strongest link in the gonsamer bridge that binds us as people,”… “And if you taught me anything it’s that what we hold in our hearts is truly the fiercest component of our humanity”.
…”there’s nothing so powerful as the emboldened kindness of one human being reaching out to another, who is held only by despair.”
And the ending of the book, which made me get goose bumps.
“As my father wrote, one’s courage, hope and spirit can be severely tried by the happenstances of life. But as I learned on this Virginia Mountain so long as one never loses faith, it is impossible to ever truly be alone.
This is where I belong. It is a true comfort to know that I will die here on this high rock. And I fear my passing not at all. My enthusiasm is perfectly understandable, for the view from here is so very fine.”
- Lousia Mae ‘Lou’ Cardinal in her later years
I think the whole book about families making a living on a mountain made me reminisce about Ming Yin and the folks there. If you had seen the number of trucks there, you will realize how much development that place is to see in a few years’ time. I just hope that in the process, the spirit of the people there and the grandeur of the mountain will never be lost. That would just pain my heart. I can never seem to stop thinking about the people there; they will probably be a part of my life and in my thoughts forever.
How I wish I could teleport myself and travel back in time to visit Chettipatti + Anna Nagar and get to know my grandparents for real. The more I read this book, the more inadequate I felt, in the sense that I never really got to know my ancestry. I remember my dad swelling with pride while talking about his childhood, drinking buffalo milk and gorging on all the sugarcane there was, going to that little school not far away from my grandfather’s house, all the talk about how my chithappa and my dad helped their father with his business and my own feeling of pride when I walked through my grandfather’s fields. Clearly, those were good times..
My grandparents (all four of them) were great people in their own way, especially both my grandfathers who despite their financial situations, were forward-thinking men took it upon themselves to provide the best for their children. The fact that there’s so much about them that I don’t know makes me feel sad.
