Too Early for Flowers: The Story of a Polio Mother

Kurt
Sipolski
Genre: 
Other

WOMEN'S FICTION:  It is WWII and Iris, a young mother, is left widowed with two children, one who has contracted polio. Given no recourse, Iris is forced to move back to her hometown and in with her mother. She does her best to be both mother and father and to keep her husband’s memory alive while keeping life as normal as possible for her two boys. But, Greyson is a cripple in everyone’s eyes except Iris’s.  As time passes, Iris begins to think about getting married again, after all, she’s a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, she doesn’t want to spend it alone.  Then, she meets Bill…he came over to fix her car, but capturing her heart instead.  It doesn’’t even seem to matter to him that Gray has polio.  Can love be found amidst so much heartache?  Can life be happy against all odds?  Iris is determined to find out.

 

“The Polio Mother” is a beautifully written tale of a mother’s struggle to live, in the face of her husband’s death, while raising her two boys - one of which who has contracted polio.  The dialogue is particularly engaging, and readers will warm to the characters, especially Iris and Greyson as she fights to give her children a good life and he struggles with determination to overcome his physical hurdles. The descriptions of polio and the fears of contamination tell of the panic and subsequent hardship that ensued in those years, leaving the reader touched, changed and significantly more the wiser.  Bravo, Mr. Sipolski!

 

Victoria Z. Burg