Color the Sidewalk For Me
by Brandilyn Collins
As a chalk-fingered child, I had worn my craving for Mama's love on my sleeve. But as I grew, that craving became cloaked in excuses and denial until slowly it sank beneath my skin to lie unheeded but vital, like the sinews of my framework. By the time I was a teenager, I thought the gap between Mama and me could not be wider.
And than Danny came along...
A splendidly colored sidewalk. Six-year-old Celia presented the gift to her mother with pride—and received only anger in return. Why couldn't Mama love her? Years later, when once-in-a-lifetime love found Celia, her mother opposed it. The crushing losses that followed drove Celia, guilt-ridden and grieving, from her Bradleyville home.
Now thirty-five, she must return to nurse her father after a stroke. But the deepest need for healing lies in the rift between mother and daughter. God can perform such a miracle. But first Celia and Mama must let go of the past—before it destroys them both.
When Celia Mathews’ father suffers a stroke, she must return to the town where she grew up and face a past that, for seventeen years, she’s tried hard to leave behind.
Though not your traditional romance, Color the Sidewalk for Me is a story about love. It covers almost all the kinds of love relationships that can exist, and the complexities involved with them. It is a coming of age story, about a young girl finding love...and losing. And then, of overcoming anger and past hurts, and discovering the path to forgiveness and ultimate contentment.
This is a book I want to read over and over again. There are no fantastic car chases, buildings exploding, or bodies turning up dead. But Brandilyn Collins has formulated her characters so well that I really cared about them and could not stop reading. I just had to find out what was going to happen to Celia and her mother, or Celia and her love, Danny.
This is a Christian book, and though it is not a light-hearted read, there is no sex or gratuitous violence, and it is appropriate for women of any age. In fact, there is a spirit of emotional and spiritual healing throughout the book that anyone who reads it, male or female, could benefit from even if they don’t face the same problems as Celia. I highly recommended it.
Reviewed by Violet
