Christmas, Present

If you're looking for a Christmas book filled with good cheer and happy tidings, Christmas, Present by Jacquelyn Mitchard is NOT for you. Reading the premise from the back cover promises that" a family comes together during the holiday season as they learn a powerful lesson about love and how to live each day of their lives as if it were their last." This is NOT a happy story, while there might be a message tucked inside that tomorrows are never a guarantee and that we should embrace the present as if is the only day we will ever have.

As Elliot and Laura Banner make plans for their fourteenth wedding anniversary by attending a very wonderful play that Laura has been wanting to see performed by Cirque du Soleil only to have their car break down on their way home. Laura has been dealing with a horrible headache that she feels is a migraine, although she has never had one. She begs Elliot to take her to the hospital or at least call for an ambulance because she feels something isn't quite right. After considerable stalling, Laura begs a policeman to call the ambulance for her. Elliot can sense at this point that she doesn't look right and agrees.

When they arrive at the hospital, Laura is whisked away while Elliot deals with the paperwork only to learn that despite all his efforts, Laura has had a rupture of a major artery in her brain and has only hours left to live. Even if he had called for an ambulance when she experienced her headache, it would have been too late to do anything. While the doctor believes some internet searching and calling some colleagues might yield a different result, he tells Elliot that she will continue to have seizures until she lapses into a coma and dies.

I received Christmas, Present by Jacquelyn Mitchard, compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers. I guess the intent in the writing this novel is to embrace our days even more than we do now, because we always believe there will be a tomorrow. But like the Bible reminds us, life is merely a vapor. It is gone much too soon, and then we are faced with dealing with regrets for things we never did, believing we could always do it later. I would advise, NOT reading this during Christmas as the holidays are difficult to get through without reading something not so cheerful. I had hoped it would turn out differently but it doesn't. This is not a book with a happily ever after ending, unless it is a that the family will eventually move on, dealing with their losses in their own way. For me, I'd rate this one a 4 out of 5 stars in my opinion.

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Christmas, Present by Jacquelyn Mitchard

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