This Path We Share

Did you, like so many others, grow up without the chance to observe a great marriage at close range for many years? Marriage books and blogs like this one can only go so far to fill this gap. We need role models, not just techniques.
Lois Tschetter Hjelmstad offers us an intimate, close-up picture of her marriage to Les Hjelmstad in her new book, This Path We Share: Reflecting on 60 Years of Marriage. Lois, who also wrote Fine Black Lines: Reflections on Facing Cancer, Fear and Loneliness, kindly sent me a review copy. I am so glad she did. I would not know such a book existed, and we need books like this.
This memoir of a marriage reads like a well-written novel. Lois and Les find their way through the usual ups and downs of a marriage, the “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health” through which we vow to love and to cherish.
I can tell you to Expect Love instead of all those other things we mortal humans want to expect from a husband or wife. Lois Hjelmstad takes us into the frustrations of trying to hang onto expectations we have no control over and shows us how love unfolds and nourishes us when we choose to let go of those expectations.
Les and Lois face the same sort of unexpected challenges that lead others to give up, to live side-by-side but no longer together, to seek solace in someone else’s arms, to choose divorce, but each time, they find a way through to a better place together. We need role models like these.
You can find both books at her Mulberry Hill Press website or through the Amazon affiliate links above.