Books about family fill my bookshelves. I love my family and I love to read about other family dynamics and how they work. I happened onto this book called To Wendy’s With Love, the 22 year lunch by Diane Keyes. It sounded interesting so off I go.
To Wendy’s With Love: the 22-year lunch
The author, Diane writes an autobiography of her past. She suffered a brain hemorrhage and lost her childhood memories. She was left with painful memories and a lot of painful unanswered questions. So she began meeting with her Mother at Wendy’s Hamburgers over lunch and a bunch of frosty’s. One of the most unlikely places became the place that healing began. For the last 22 years and over endless amounts of frosty’s, Diane began the process of healing. She has recovered good and bad memories and made new ones. She has done this with over four generations of her family. As time has passed more and more of her family members join in for discussion and food. This book shows how courage, conservation, faith and prayer can bring a family closer together. If all the relationships in the world could have the chance to talk and spend time together, maybe they would become stronger.
From Amazon
“We are treated to loving portraits of family members and friends. Diane Keyes insightfully traces the secret histories of some of them, including her own haunted flight from childhood trauma, and the way The 22-Year Lunch created openings for healing conversations. She uses painful family history to illustrate how we can torture ourselves and our loved ones with the best of intentions, and how she found a way out of that pattern, one lunch at a time. She speaks of moving from a sense of obligation to show up at lunch, to gratitude for it, to considering it a great gift, and finally calling it sacred. I was reminded of a favorite family I grew up loving dearly—two sisters about my age and their parents—and how, to this day, every time I am with them, the phrase “the Feast of the Lamb” floats through my head. Here is a whole book celebrating a blessedly literal feast that these lucky people have given themselves, turning the special occasion on its head, reclaiming family and community in a way that has slipped away from most of us in the rush and isolation of modern life. It’s a very timely book.”
Ronald Reagan said All great change begins at the dinner table.
Maybe Mr. Reagan was on to something.
Find the book here Amazon
Itascabooks
Diane Keyes
Tuesday 28th of February 2017
I've been having computer problems so I'm resending my post in case you did not receive the last one I sent. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and then review my book, To Wendy's With Love. I especially appreciate that you think the book is timely. My hope is that in these troubling times, when we are all feeling isolated and frightened, that my message of the value of eating together can be a way to help us find our way back to each other. We all want the same things--a happy family, good health and enough money to live without struggle. Around the table we can discover there is more to unite us than to divide us.