Just One More Day

by Susan Lewis

In 1960s Bristol, a family is overshadowed by tragedy

While Susan, a typically feisty seven-year-old, is busy being brave, her mother, Eddress, is struggling for courage. Though bound by an indestructible love, their journey through a world that is darkening with tragedy is fraught with the kind of misunderstandings that bring as much laughter as pain, and as many dreams as nightmares. How does a child cope when faced with a wall of adult secrets? What does a mother do when her biggest fear starts to become a reality? Because it's the Sixties, and because it's shameful to own up to feelings, Eddress tries to deny the truth, while Susan creates a world that will never allow her mother to leave.

Set in a world where a fridge is a luxury, cars have starting handles, and where bingo and coupons bring in the little extras, Just One More Day is a deeply moving true-life account, told by mother and daughter, of how the spectre of death moved into their family, and how hard they tried to pretend it wasn't there.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

340 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.


Susan Lewis is the bestselling author of over forty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s. Following periods of living in Los Angeles and the South of France, she currently lives in Gloucestershire with her husband James, stepsons Michael and Luke, and mischievous dogs Coco and Lulu.

Reviews

[Julie Haigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving and memorable.

I've read a few of Susan Lewis's fiction books and enjoyed them, particularly 'Dance While You Can', so I was very interested to discover this memoir. It is quite some time since I read this now, but it was so memorable that many parts of it still stick in my mind. It is written from the young Susan's point of view and switches also to writings from her mother's point of view. It is really well done, beautiful. It built up to a really heart-breaking ending and by that time, I was so involved I was actually crying as I read it. Not something I do a lot with a book but if a book is as engrossing as this then it can happen and it certainly did with this one.

[Terri Durling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book in a very long time that I thoroughly enjoyed. It is based on a true story of a mother and daughter in the 60s in Bristol, England and how they dealt with a tragedy that unfolds. Susan is 7 when the book starts, the eldest of two children belonging to Eddie & Eddress Lewis. She is also the author of this charming, well written book. Her writing is funny and, at the same time, sad as seen through the eyes of a child as she watches her mother change over a period of two years ending in her mother’s death from cancer. She is never told the truth - her mother has headaches, is tired and works part time but the reality is she's getting treated for her disease that eventually takes her life. Her mother is a strong willed, determined woman who loves her husband and two children deeply. She is a mother bear disciplinarian who wants the best for her two cubs and will stop at nothing to get it until,the cancer resigns supreme. She and Susan love each other deeply but also rub each other the wrong way. Eddress also gets into frequent rows with her husband who gets frustrated because she won't stop smoking despite her illness and the doctor’s recommendation to stop. I cried at the end, just as I knew I would. By then I cared about Susan and Eddress very much and it was painful to know it was not going to be a happy ending. Susan takes you on the journey of a child losing her mother & the mother’s feelings of frustration, denial, anger, and finally, acceptance as her death becomes inevitable. Thank you for a beautiful and real story of a mother/daughter relationship, about terminal illness and what it is to deal with it as a family. Things have changed since the 1960s but cancer remains a disease that still takes so many lives and affects so many families.

[Kay Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book covers the heartache and laughter right to the bitter end.

[shuu · Rating 4 out of 5]

it’s really hard to rate because it is a memoir and i have to remember that everything in this book happened in some way

it was extremely painful as you’re reading through a mother who i’m assuming had breast cancer —though it never states it directly— and a 7 year old daughter who is clueless about her mother’s wellbeing

there were some really weird parts especially towards the beginning and the end so it was a lot to take in, sometimes they were just being really annoying, especially the mother

but overall it is a true story and just a heartfelt memoir of the life the author once lived which adds to the impact

[Марина · Rating 4 out of 5]

Чесно кажучи, я була налаштована на одноразову історію, про яку забудеш одразу після прочитання. А натомість сталося так, що історія Сьюзан та її матері мене справді зачепила.

Я не знаю, наскільки цей роман наближений до особистого досвіду авторки, але все описане в ньому звучить як правдива історія. Без зайвого драматизму і закрученого сюжету. Оповідь ведеться по черзі від імені Сьюзан та її матері Ідріс та охоплює два роки їхнього життя - з моменту, коли маму Сьюзан починає повільно забирати рак. Маленька Сьюзан відчуває зміни настрою батьків, що наштовхує її на думку про те, що періодична довга відсутність мами може означати лише одне - у неї десь інша родина, інші діти, більш слухняні та чемні. Настрій у родині не дає дівчинці зосередитися на навчанні та спілкуванні з однолітками. Роздратованість та імпульсивність Ідріс аж ніяк не полегшують ситуацію. Розділи від її імені сповнені гострих висловлювань в бік сусідів, іноді й чоловіка, занепокоєнням щодо дітей, злістю на себе і на світ та ірландськими діалектизмами.

Що мене зачепило. Повсякденність. Звичайні побутові розмови. Опис сімейних свят. Банальність того, що взагалі відбувається на сторінках. Протягом усієї книги я думала про те, що якраз такими і залишаються спогади про близьку людину, коли її вже немає поруч - випадкові згадки про вечерю у п'ятницю, на якій обговорювали майбутній приїзд когось з родичів або плани на суботні закупи.

Не обов'язкова книга, але точно не пуста.

[Judi Keane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of a young Susan and her brother growing up in '60's Bristol.
Typical description of how life was back then. So sad for them to lose their mum at such young ages. Makes it also seem the cure for cancers are as far away, as they've ever been?

[Susan Finck · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Punit Sahani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful narration of mother - daughter, father - daughter relationship. Innocent yet clever.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange, sad little book that I had to finish any way.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very touching account of a mum's death through both her and her daughter's perspective.

[mrs lorraine k williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

[Amanda Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving account of the unknown circumstances around cancer in the 60s

[JENELLE WINTON · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very poignant read

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a slower read to begin with but I soon found I couldn't put it down. This was a bit different to the memoirs I usually read, but was a good read nonetheless.

[Sonia Critchlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, I couldn't put it down

[Mandie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nostalgic, heartwarming, funny and sad true story.. loved it! A great read and it brought back so many memories of my own.A tear jerking .. sat with tears rolling down my cheeks ..amazing read 📚

[Linda Burdett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed in this book I love Susan Lewis but found it hard to keep interested in this book

[Clare Louise Muirhead · Rating 4 out of 5]

a good read, could tell what was going to happen in the end.

[Linda Mcgurrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written
could feel the emotions of the characters
The children’s characters are beautifully portrayed

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very moving and such wonderful insight into both the mind and life of a child and the mind of her mother.

[Milly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made my cry - ugly cry!
It was pretty slow in my opinion as they story was just kind of showing a typical day to day life of Suzan's family and I was struggling sometimes to understand what was going. It's not a bad book, but there were too many details at some points and it could have been shorter.

I feel bad as this is a true story and I would give it less stars, but as the ending made my so emotional it has to be *3 as any less would just feel wrong.

[LindyLouMac · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea how this title came to be on my bookshelf as I have only ever read one novel by this author, although I have two others by her on the TBR shelf. I need to get down to some serious reading if I am ever to catch up!

‘Just One More Day’ is the moving memoir of Susan Lewis growing up in 1960’s Bristol in a household that was facing tragedy, whilst pretending it was not happening. As Susan was only seven years old at the time I did have my doubts that she remembered so much so clearly, maybe her mother left a diary. I have not been able to find out if this was in fact the case. Susan spends her young childhood being brave about a situation she does not fully understand, while her toddler brother is oblivious to the pain within the family. Eddress and Eddie married when she was only twenty one and it as still a young woman she is faces cancer, without admitting her fears. It was just not done to show your feelings back in the sixties, so Eddress tries to deny to herself what is happening to her.

Susan struggled in this world of adult secrets but explains it well in this heart breaking true story of a young woman who dies at the tender age of thirty three leaving her husband a widower at thirty seven with children of nine and five. A scenario that really tugged at my heart strings and was a very emotional read.

More can be found about the author and her writing by visiting LindyLoumac's Book Reviews.
http://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogspo...

[Bookmaniac70 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was definitely well written. I became absorbed in the shifting narration through the voices of mother and daughter. The characters were very lively. I could easily picture Susan and her family. I felt sorry for everyone of them, including Eddress, who had a lot of good in her in spite of her stubborness and harshness towards her Eddie and Susan. She seemed a tough woman,from the older generation when feelings were something to be kept deep underneath,and growing soft was not encouraged. She definitely had problems with sharing her emotions. She isolated herself from the family,denying the truth of her illness,unwilling to speak to anyone about it,trying to pretend it was not there. So she devoided herself and her children of sharing and proper grieving in the last months. Eddress was seeing her role as housewife and was feeling unadequate and useless when she became too weak to do anything in the house.
I liked the father,Eddie. He was really caring and loving,and bore with his wife`s mood shifts.

Susan seems like the one who suffered most from her mother`s difficult character. She didn`t benefit much from this troubled daughter-mother relationship but perhaps when she grows up, she may become to understand her mother better and appreciate her efforts and strength.

Somehow the reader closes the book hoping for a better future for this family.

[Felicity Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having had the conversation about why I didn't generally read childhood memoirs I was persuaded by a friend to read this 'very different read', a true-life story written by acclaimed author Susan Lewis.

I don't know if it was because this wasn't a read about childhood abuse OR if it was because of the way it was written but I didn't feel the usual uncomfortable stirrings I normally feel on reading this type of memoir but instead felt almost like a long lost friend/family member to whom the story was being related.

A unique read, I enjoyed the fact that it was narrated by two 'different' people - Susan Lewis did well to tell the story as she saw it both through the eyes of her mother and her 7 to 9 year old self. But what really amazed me was how Susan depicts her childhood as one of a 'little adult' and yet at the same time writes of how she was almost totally cocooned against the realities of the unfolding tragic events.

Finding myself laughing one minute and crying the next this was a real roller-coaster of a read that as well as much sadness also told a tale of a deep love.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never heard of Susan Lewis, so I wouldn't have chosen this book. But a friend lent it to me, and I found it very readable. It's a biographical account of the author's childhood, when her mother was battling cancer. It's cleverly told from two perspectives - eight-year-old Susan's own, and that of her mother Eddress.

The background is of a struggling family in Bristol in the 1960s; the mother is strict, and ambitious for her children, the father a delightful man who reads to them, plays with them, and likes to write poetry.

The images portrayed are vivid and realistic, the writing very well done, and the story told in a way that left me wanting to know a great deal more about Susan's later life. Definitely recommended.

[Dora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book many years ago but have just re-read it. It is well written and sad and I am sure affected Susan all her life losing her mother at such a young age.

I think she has a good grasp of what her mother was like as she has obviously written the chapters which are supposed to be written by Eddress. Her Mum sounded quite a character, good fun at times. but very stubborn with a big chip on her shoulder. I kept wishing she would give up the cigarettes which her doctor and husband told her would be the death of her. She was a woman who found it really difficult to show love to her kids and husband but the husband sounded a lovely, kind and intelligent man.

I will also read the follow up book to this.

[Shar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this book. It is centred around 1960s UK where the author, Susan Lewis, is growing up in a normal, happy UK family. With mum Eddress, dad Eddie and little brother Gary. It tells the story from 2 different perspectives, that of Susan and her mother Eddress. it shows the two different feelings and perspectives of Eddress suffering and being treated for breast cancer.

This is highly recommended by me, have had this on my bookshelf for a few years and haven't picked it up because I expected it to have me in tears, which it did at times, but its far from doom and gloom.

[Amanda Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book by a friend to read. A few lines in I knew I was hooked on the story. It's told by two people Susan and her mum Eddesss who is ill with cancer. Susan is only nine and doesn't understand what is happening to her mum and how to deal with it. A story which touched my heart, after losing my dad to cancer when I was eleven I found I could relate to what Susan went through without really understanding how ill her mum was. This memoir was beautifully written and lovely to read.

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was really sad but sweet at the same time. Told from the point of view of the mother and the daughter, your heart just breaks for the little girl and how she misinterprets everything going on around her, and for the mother for what she is going through and how she tries to just bury her head in the sand.
At first I found it hard to understand because the old school English, but once I got my head wrapped around it, it got better.

[Jenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice to read a true story for a change. From the mother and young daughters view its about living with the mothers cancer. It makes you realise the impact on the father trying his best for his wife and two children, grim subject but gives the reader a better understanding of what families go through with this cruel disease.