Connie

“She's 68 now, and although she knows the idea of being put out to pasture is a phrase others associate with obsolescence and redundancy, for her it conjures lushes green fields filled with buttercups where she's free to roam.”
― Florence Knapp, The Names

“Yes, people's lives bump and collide and we send one another spinning off in different directions. But that 's life. It's not unique to you. We each make our own choices.”
― Florence Knapp, The Names

“She suspects that, to be a good parent, she must pack away the mothering part of herself into a box and gently close the lid on it. She had not realised this is what would be required of her, had not seen it coming. And yet she will do so willingly. Would you lay down your life for your child? the world silently asks. Yes, she’s done this. But she hadn’t known there would be a second reckoning, where this would eventually mean laying down the arms of motherhood: caution, foreseeing, checking, reminding, nurturing, openly caring.”
― Florence Knapp, The Names

“His mother’s life had taught him that you do everything you can to cling to survival.”
― Florence Knapp, The Names