the Best Place to Be Author:Helen Van Slyke In a suburb of Cleveland, on an August afternoon, Sheila Callahan came face to face with harsh reality. — For 27 years she'd been a faithful wife to the handsome, virile Sean. Now he was dead. And just as he'd betrayed her in life, so once again had he betrayed her in death, leaving her and her children virtually nothing beyond the memory of hi... more »s overpowering charm and free-spending ways.
This is the story of Sheila Callahan, the widow, with the all-too-familiar problems that uniquely affect a woman suddenly left alone. In the days ahead, she struggles with the need to earn a living, to cope with the possessiveness of a teen-age son, the hostility of a dropout daughter, the disapproval of her own mother with whom she yearns to establish a deep understanding.
Above all, Sheila must overcome loneliness, uncertainty, the emotional insecurity of her new role as a "single woman". The changed attitudes of old friends, the trauma of an affair with a younger man, and the eventual discovery of her own strength despite her vulnerability are absorbing ingredients of this story of today.
Sheila's pain and bewilderment, her fears and her ultimate serenity are touchingly portrayed in a compassionate,true-to-life account of a shocking legacy which became the gift of a whole new life.« less