"Cleo, the Cat Who Mended a Family" by Helen Brown.
Cat-lovers, isn't that a face that could just melt your heart?
Well, this story is one of love, grief, restortation of the spirit and soul. You will probably need a tissue or two, at the beginning at any rate...... If you have ever lost a child, grandchild or young person in your life, this book MIGHT not be for you. However, this might be the story that helps heal your heart's wounds.
Helen, New Zealand journalist, TV presenter and scriptwriter, who currently resides in Melbourne, Australia with her family, tells the poignant story of how Cleo came to her family, and helped them heal.
As Helen begins her story, "Choice" A cat chooses it owner, not the other way around.
Helen and her sons, Sam and Rob are going to visit Lena's house to look at kittens, Helen states "We're not getting a kitten," I said, negoitiating our station wagon around a bend the shape of a pretzel, "We're just goint to look at them." Famous last words spoken by this mom. "You said we could get a kitten," Sam whined from the backseat before turning to his younger brother for support. "Didn't she?"
"I didn't want a cat. I probably wasn't even a cat person. My husband, Steve, certainly wasn't. If only Lean hadn't smiled so brightly that day at our neighborhood playgroup when she'd asked: "Would you like a kitten?" If only she hadn't said it so loudly--and in front of the children."
Kittens are looked at, and one stands out, but still Helen doesn't make a concrete decision. At this time, the kittens are too young to be separated from their mother anyway.
Life goes on, until that fateful day, when Helen is having lunch with a friend, and a phone call comes for Helen - a phone call that will change her and her family's life forever. Sam, the oldest son, has been struck and killed by a car. Life becomes unbearable, a blur, a torment, filled with anger, grief, and then Lena arrives with the kitten that Sam and Rob had fallen in love with that day. Helen is sure that this not the thing that their lives need, but Rob, who witnessed his brother's death, is convinced that the kitten was sent by his brother. And so the saga of Cleo begins.
Cleo is unspeakably a spritiual being who knows exactly what each family member needs, and when they need it.
Unfortuately, as is the case in so many tragic events, Helen's marriage falls apart, yet Cleo is the one stable thing that holds her and Rob together during this event. And when Helen meets "Philip with one I" and falls in love with this "too good-looking to be real" eight years younger man, Cleo once again is there for Helen and Rob.
Hope this has interested you enough to pick up and read.......
Happy Reading.
