i am flying
James F. Ross
Fran Lewis: Reviewer
August 14, 2012
The canvas of an artist’s
painting often reflects his feelings, emotions and life if he chooses to create
the important moments he has lived through his artistry. Each picture, each
stroke of his brush that he paints will depict an important moment that will
live forever. The lens of a camera often provides the ability to record a
sunset, a single rose a favorite place as the shutter is pressed and the
picture is taken with a camera that has seen many years. Martin Connor has
reached the final sunset or twilight of his life and what he remembers and will
leave to the world has been stacked and packed within the tight confines of
boxes he has placed in his lonely room. Married for many years to his precious
Marie he recounts the many special moments that they spent together. But,
living in a community barren of family and few friends, Martin Connor
contemplates his life and his next step.
Living in this home or community
he is subject to the rules imposed by others, the frustrations he faces each
day and the loneliness he feels in his heart. An administrator who is
dictatorial and commanding a social worker who needs retraining and the few
possessions that he owns Martin Connor has only one choice that will set things
straight and give him the feeling and ability to soar or fly.
Throughout this novelette you
hear the voice of this man, read his words as he shares his journal that only
you the reader and Martin can read and comprehend to understand the final
moments of this man’s life. Planning his exit would take energy, fortitude and
the help of two others. Trying to convince the administrator to forgo giving
him his meds is ingenious. With his plan in place and convincing everyone he
overdosed on aspirin and the way he managed to do it, Martin Connor was one man
who no one could get one over and who was determined to execute his plan and
final day his own way.
While he explained to his friend
Brenda who lived in the room opposite him what he wanted done with his boxes,
where to send the contents when he was gone, he managed to take one more ride
to visit the one person he cherished the most. Did you ever decide to plan your
exit from this world? If you were diagnosed with a terminal illness would you
decide to give up or would you fight to live longer? What if you put your
thoughts and ideas in a journal and yet only you could read them and only you
could fulfill your thoughts and words?
Living alone and feeling that
life has no more journeys and paths the author relates quite graphically,
vividly and clearly the feelings that many people have when they realize they
have nowhere to go, no one to care for them and nothing else they want to do.
But, Martin Connor is special and his departure would be unique and definitely
well defined and planned out as he enlists the help of a past student to take
one last ride. With his camera at hand he enters Dann Memorial Park for the
last time. A place that was special to him as a child where he played and near
where his family lived. The Bench: a reminder of his wife Marie. Something so
ordinary yet so precious in his thoughts and mind as he hopes to spend one
final hour there sitting and watching the world go by and hoping for a jelly
doughnut. The memories he shares with the reader relate to his life with his
wife Marie whose mother would visit his mother as they played as children
together. The Bench: held some special memories as he remembers sitting there
holding Marie’s hand on their Bench Date watching the sunset. “I came back,” he says. “Our last date. Until now, courage eluded my
desire to come here and sit with you one more time.”
A story told from the heart in
the first person by the character himself you feel the pain in his heart, the
love he felt for his wife and the freedom he wants to take his final journey
the only way he can. Author James F. Ross takes the reader along with Martin
Connor, Brenda and one special man named Bobby on the lasting journey that will
be so memorable and heartwarming yet heartbreaking it will remind everyone what
happens to those who are forgotten and put aside in homes where they feel all
alone and just one person who really does not matter to those who run the
facility. Everyone has dreams and no one should deflate those of another
person. As Martin returns to the home and Bobby to his wife they both realize
the precious things in their lives, what will be left behind the wonderful
thing he did for this man’s family that will keep him in their hearts and minds
forever.
As he returns to the home and
falls asleep from a fever what he does will surprise the reader and make you
realize how precious life is, how we need to care for the elderly in the right
way and the honesty and determination of one way to find his own way to
Freedom: I am Flying: just what that means and how this title fits so perfectly
you need to read this for yourself.
Just how does someone get their
final piece of mind? Just how does someone say farewell when there is no one to
say goodbye too? Read i am flying to
find out. This is definitely a book that will give you much pause for thought,
make you understand how people feel when diagnosed with a terminal illness and
understand that those running facilities need to show more compassion,
understanding and love to those that have been placed in their care.
Fran Lewis: Reviewer
Let’s give this book: FIVE
BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS
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