I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this memoir by Helen Beardsley. Growing up, I enjoyed watching the classic film "Yours, Mine, and Ours." What I didn't know until I was an adult was that it was based very, very, very loosely on a book. I have read the book at least twice since then and have just continued to love it more each time. The book is told through Helen's perspective, and it begins with the death of her first husband. It chronicles her family's move, her settling down, her first "introduction" to the man who would become her second husband. As she's enrolling her children in school, she meets a woman with a brother who has just recently lost his wife. He has a very, very large family. As this woman is relating the story to Helen, she feels led to send him a poem that comforted her after the death of her husband. And so the two meet first by correspondence. Not that they stay in touch, but, eventually these two begin to correspond with one another and exchange pictures. After getting to know one another, they decide to start seeing one another, just to enjoy each other's company, just to have someone who understands, never imagining that God is giving them both a second chance at love and a happily ever after. But. God is writing their love story. And these two families will become one very, very big family in their own way and at just the right time. Half the book takes place after their marriage. Their are chapters that capture the every day, little, ordinary moments of family life: preparing meals, family arrangements (bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry, chores, etc.), shopping (grocery, clothes, shoes, etc.), holidays and birthdays. Oh, and learning to get along with siblings new and old. The book builds up to the big decision to adopt one another's children.
The book is sweet, tender, genuine, and faith-friendly.
The book is so very different than the movie, in a way. The movie adds a LOT of drama and comedic sketches. And very little of the courtship from the book is related in the movie--not that the movie gets it wrong exactly, but they're going for a different picture or idea. Especially when it comes to Helen meeting his children. Let's just say the movie is about as far away from the book as possible.
I would definitely recommend this one. It's a tender, loving family story.
Read Who Gets The Drumstick?
- If you enjoy reading biographies and memoirs
- If you have always been curious about large families
- If you enjoy true love stories
- If you have seen Yours, Mine, and Ours and want to know the 'real story' behind the movie
2 comments:
Jealous! I love this sort of story from this era, and most of the copies I see on ILL are local circ only! The copies on ebay go for upwards of $40! I'll keep looking.
I've been wanting to read this book for awhile . . . your review makes me even more intrigued about this book! But it's so expensive on Amazon, and I haven't found a used copy elsewhere yet. Hopefully I will one day . . .
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