Daughters for a Time (34 page)

Q: Helen admires the faith she saw in her mother, Claire, and her friend Amy DePalma. Can faith be taught or do some people “just have it?”

A: I quite admire the Catholic faith and the tradition and ritual that goes into each Mass, but I didn’t grow up as a Catholic so still, so much of the time, I feel like I’m missing some elements that others—the truly faithful—have. Often, I admire true faith when I see it and I wish that mine were deeper. I do see it as a gift.

1. We meet Helen in the midst of her crisis with infertility. She has Claire for support, but she longs for her mother. Claire is efficient, demands Helen to “buck up” and to “think of a new plan” when Helen wants to wallow in her despair. Helen explains that Claire was the same way when their mother died—so quick to pack up and move on. Does everyone make their way through grief differently?

2. Helen fears being left, so much that she worries that the daughter she’s given through adoption will someday leave her. She thinks having a biological child would be easier, in that she would know where the child was coming from, no mysteries. Would an adoptive child “leave” any more readily than a biological child? Are Helen’s fears misguided?

3. It’s not until Helen is older that she realizes that Claire has always been her greatest advocate. When Helen is in China—writing a letter to Claire—she recalls how her sister used to stop by to check in on her, slip her groceries, and check her cell phone to make sure it was working. Is a “sibling” relationship ever equal, or does one sibling always parent the other?

4. The concept of having one foot in joy and one foot in suffering is a theme that threads its way throughout the book. Helen admits to the social worker that it’s a shame that she couldn’t have it all, that she couldn’t have Sam
and
Claire, just like she couldn’t have her mother
and
father. Or her mother
and
Claire. Is something good always balanced by something bad?

5. Helen is particularly easy on Larry. She doesn’t hold a grudge like her sister does. She remembers good times and is willing to give Larry a pass for the hurt he had caused his family. Why do you think that is? Why is her longing to reconnect with him so great?

6. Helen walks in on Claire while her sister is praying the Rosary. Helen admits her admiration, saying that it was so clear that Claire’s is the penetrating type of faith, not the memorized version that Helen had learned through years of religious training. Where will Helen’s curiosity and admiration for her mother’s, her sister’s, and her friend Amy’s faith lead her?

7. Toward the end, social worker Elle Reese asks Helen if these children—Sam, Maura, Grace—have had the restorative power she was looking for, whether they filled the hole in her heart. Do some women have children to re-create, fix, or restore their own childhoods?

Jennifer Handford was born in Phoenix, Arizona, where she lived until she moved to Oregon for college and graduate school. After graduation, she moved to Washington, DC, and has lived in the Virginia/Washington, DC, area for fifteen years. Jennifer is married and has three daughters.
Daughters for a Time
was awarded one of three first place prizes in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. It is her first novel.

Please visit Jennifer at
www.jenniferhandford.com.