The Last Song

I don't read. At least I used to not read. Several months ago, my mom gave me the book "The Last Song" to read. I put it aside. It made it's way from my kitchen table, to my dryer, to my computer desk. Then when we redid our family room, I moved it out to my new bookshelf. It's been staring at me for 2 months on the shelf. I decided that this was the week I was going to read it. I started it Wednesday night and I just finished it 2 hours ago. I couldn't put it down!

I have a nauseous feeling in my stomach, a pounding headache, and my eyes are swollen. I pretty much bawled my way through the last 1/4 of the book. Maisey was so concerned that I way crying that when Shaun got home tonight he went running to him and said, "Mommy's reading a crying book!"

Yeah, in general, it was a sad book, but it was all too familiar for me.

***If you haven't read the book and you don't want to know what happens, STOP reading now!***

An 18 year-old girl takes care of her failing father who she hadn't treated very kindly in the past few years. This new experience really brought the 2 of them together and changed her life for the better.

HELLO????? That was so me! Although, I was never as bad as Ronnie, I was definitely my parent's worst teenager. But I changed -- The summer I turned 17 and my dad got very sick. I spent my senior year of high school taking care of him. I hardly ever went to school, I spent every minute I could with him.

The intense emotions that Ronnie felt were so real to me. Even some of the same things that she said, I remembered saying! This part of the story was MY story. I was reading MY story. Almost like Nicholas Sparks was inside my mind during the summer of 2003.

The letters, the sun shining at just the right moments, the church leaders, sitting by the hospital bed holding his hand, gently kissing his cheek, and that final trip home to enjoy an intimate, special moment with his family (in my case, Christmas), EVERYTHING! It was all too real! With every paragraph I could picture the same scene with my own dad, my own family.

It was INTENSE! It was POWERFUL!

Not sure if I want to put myself through the movie. I'm pretty sure my eyes have had enough crying for the year!