Review: Letters to My Daughters: A mother's love always lights the way home

Letters to My Daughters: A mother's love always lights the way home by Emma Hannigan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I purchased this book when I heard the terrible news that Emma's long fought battle with cancer was coming to an end, and I was in the middle of another book when I heard the news that she had passed away, and so I put that book down, and started this as a tribute to a wonderful, young courageous woman.

Letters To My Daughters tells the story of Martha and Jim and their daughters Beatrice, Jeannie and Rose. Martha, a midwife, and Jim who ran his own interior design business in Dublin, retire to Connemara for a quieter life. The girls were bought up by Nanny May as Martha's job as a busy community midwife was very important to her, often more important than her own children. During their childhood, Nanny May became an integral part of the girl's lives, giving cuddles and showering them with love when they fell over and grazed knees, to preparing them for womanhood and all that it would bring.

When Nanny May dies, she leaves each girl, and dad Jim a letter. Martha is the one of the first people to go to Nanny May's cottage, and when she discovers the letters she puts them in her handbag- a cold jealous act, by a cold, jealous woman.

The story follows the lives of the family after Nanny May's death, and how they pull in different directions, wanting different things from life.

A beautifully told story, the characters were so true to life, and when I read the words, I felt like I was watching a movie in my head - the narrative was wonderful.

The hardest part was reading the acknowledgements at the end of the book - if you can read them without shedding a tear, then you're a better person than me.

Emma Hannigan may be gone, but she left behind a fantastic legacy for us all.

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