Lifelines

by Julie Ramson

After thirty years of marriage, Kate Sloan discovers that her husband, Jim, has had another “fling” – this time with her best friend. Her decision to divorce him sets into motion a cascade of events that will forever change not only her life but the lives of everyone she loves.Jim is involved in a near fatal car accident the night Kate tells him of her decision, leaving Kate struggling to find a way to help with his long rehabilitation and yet also become someone more than just Jim’s wife and her children’s mother. Jim, a surgeon at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial, must learn to understand his past in order to realize the effects of his actions now. Their daughter Alex must confront her anger at both parents to resolve her own trust issues with the man she loves while David, their son, destroys his future and engagement to his fiancée, Emily, by his reckless behavior. Kate’s mother, a once happy, now miserable woman who relies on scotch to get her through the day, must release her own hurtful memories and open her heart to others. Kate’s story, sometimes told through the prism of her family and friends’ backgrounds and emotions, will touch each of us as we watch her emerge as someone who creates a job for herself as Story Lady at the local Learning Center, as someone who becomes involved with “her” children in her story program and as someone who learns to love a little girl – a little girl who may break her heart. As Kate develops into a woman of strength, as she reaches to be more than she was before in this sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking year, her family must also grow with her or be forever less than they could have been.

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 23, 2011

About the author

Julie Ramson is a trial attorney in Chicago and a former registered nurse.